Analysis of work-related accidents In italian landfills

Despite the international efforts to promote the circular economy and waste recycling, landfilling is still a common practice for waste disposal around the world, with considerable impacts on the environment and public health. However, while such a sector was addressed in many countries through a consistent environmental legislative framework, safety management for workers in landfills has not been sufficiently considered by policymakers. Moreover, in the scientific literature OHS issues related to landfill management were not deeply addressed through the elaboration of specific procedures. Hence, with the goal to evaluate the existence of specific risk profiles in such working contexts, the paper provides a contribution through a data-driven approach. In fact, the study contains a detailed investigation of the biggest Italian occupational accident database (powered by INAIL) with reference to the landfill management sector, according to a methodology specifically designed to employ the European Statistics on Accidents at Work (ESAW) codes as data filters. After selecting a sample of n.78 accidents, likely to have occurred in Italian landfills in the period 2008/2019, accidents’ dynamics were assessed for each event with reference to the use of work equipment. The results achieved allowed us to bring to light the potential risks related to this determinant. Thus, potential risk management measures were defined in order to improve the safety management of work equipment in this specific context.