Weekly Site Inspection & Monitoring

Having carried out more than 1500 hours of COTC cover in the last two years, a common trend with some of the smaller business’s we have provided services too, is that they often don’t have any form of site inspection routine, and checks are more as and when they spring to mind rather than scheduled.

Carrying on from our last blog where we provided a FREE compliance & review calendar template to assist you to be more compliant, we have produced a basic site inspection and monitoring form.

This form prints off in A4 and is suitable for various types of facilities from small transfer stations to large transfer / treatment facilities.

By implementing a routine and carrying out inspection and monitoring on a regular basis, further improves your compliance and allows you to have an auditable system in place which demonstrates a systematic process of checking and inspecting various aspects of your waste facility. It also helps reduce potential environmental impacts, permit breaches, health & safety breaches as well as a common trend in the last few years, FIRE.

By checking tasks have been completed or items such as firefighting equipment, temperature checks of baled materials and wastes on site, emergency drills, all help towards reducing the likelihood of a fire on site.

Carrying out regular site inspections, allows you to check that tasks have been done, is it available, has a member of staff used and extinguisher or eye wash, and said nothing? When was the last time the interceptor was checked, has it filled with sediment? When was the last time a spill drill or fire drill where carried out?

Fairly common issues on any waste site, which could all be prevented by carrying out regular checks of your facility!

What next?

1. Download  the word document. 
2. Amend the site details, adding in your site’s information.
3. Amend the title headings for each section in the order you want them.
4. Walk round your site, looking at what else you want to add, check or ensure is available.

Ensure you :

Prioritise your inspections to ensure they get done, even for a big transfer station it should take not more than a few hours.

Provide feedback on your findings directly to employee’s, or as a group through tool box talks, as communication is vital and boosts moral and their input can have positive effects in terms of helping overcome issues and ensuring measures are implemented fully.

Where time and operational constraints allow, get those who carry out the daily checks and inspections involved as it allows you to gain feedback directly and see how they carry out the task as well as developing new management inspections to include mobile plant and other areas of the business!

We do this not to micromanage or pick fault, we are all human and things do get forgotten or missed. However, by ensuring someone within the management structure is regularly carrying out a routine inspection, ensures we are being proactive! And we more likely to identify issues at an early stage and resolve them, rather than a bigger problem arising out of the blue, which could have been preventable.

In addition, by involving others in the inspection process also develops your team into being more proactive when moving around site and allows you to see how tasks are performed. Does he always do this? Is it a one-man / woman task or does it require two people? All additional thought processes that you identify as you do your inspection’s, which further boosts compliance. This also allows you to identify things you would have not previously noticed, if you decided to pop over with another manager and carry out a task such as checking of an interceptor yourself. 

Which in turn allows you to further develop tool box talks, improve risk assessments with real input from the people who do the job or through concerns or issues you have identified.

Once you have a routine, it’s easy!

So, download your free site inspection form today!

Download Site Inspection form here.

Kind Regards

Health, Safety & Environmental Compliance Services

If you require any further help or assistance, please don’t hesitate to contact us at info@hsecservices.co.uk and one of the team will happily assist you.