A campaign to curb aggression against waste and recycling workers got underway this week as figures published by SUEZ recycling and recovery UK revealed a 42% increase in serious verbal and physical abuse by members of the public towards front-line staff.
‘We Refuse Abuse’ will run throughout August to highlight the almost daily occurrences of violence and aggression against SUEZ collection crews, street cleansing workers and staff based at household waste recycling centres.
Last year, there were 318 reported encounters where aggression was directed towards a SUEZ staff member.
Just over 240 of these happened at household waste recycling centres with Devon & Cornwall and Greater Manchester being the areas where the most aggressive and abusive events occurred, racking up 64 incidents each.
A close second were London and the South East where staff dealt with 54 abusive or violent incidents, the majority of which (35) occurred at just one recycling centre, Barrowell Green in Enfield.
Doncaster in South Yorkshire tops the list for the abuse of street crews accounting for almost half of all incidents with 37 occasions where collection crews had to deal with dangerous drivers and aggression from members of the public.
The London borough of Kensington and Chelsea was second with street cleansing and refuse collection teams on the receiving end of abuse and violence 14 times.
