The ESA invites the recycling and waste industry to have its say about the prevailing health and safety (H&S) culture across the sector through an independent online survey.
The short anonymous survey aims to help operators and stakeholders better understand how people working in recycling and waste treatment in the United Kingdom perceive the industry’s approach to H&S. The results will be published later this year once the survey concludes.
Independent research company, Snap Surveys, is running the study, which poses nine short statements about health and safety culture and asks respondents the extent to which they agree with those statements. The statements cover topics such as:
- The training provided allows work to be undertaken safely
- I am confident that any safety incidents would be reported and investigated
- I would be happy to raise safety concerns if I had any
The survey is entirely anonymous and designed to be completed in just a few minutes on either a desktop or smartphone. Responses will not be attributable to any individual or company; and results will be collated, anonymised, and reported on a whole‑industry basis as they have been in previous years.
The survey is open until 16 October 2026 and can be accessed here
Organisations across the industry are encouraged to promote the survey to their employees and can download this simple poster to display in communal areas within their organisation. Click here to access results from the last survey.
ESA Policy Advisor, Stephen Freeland, said: “We believe everyone working across the sector is entitled to a healthy, safe and rewarding place to work. The underlying culture towards health and safety plays a key role in meeting this ambition, and conducting this biennial survey allows us to take the pulse of the prevailing culture to ensure that it remains in good health.”
“This is the third time that ESA has commissioned the survey and the responses help build a useful picture of the trends towards health and safety across the industry. The volume of responses previously has been very good and represents a meaningful sample for the sector, so we are very grateful to respondents and hope to continue that trend this year.”
