The building blocks of recycling safety training

RIOS Executive Director Shannon Fertitta shares the benefits of continuous recycling safety training and creating a system that prioritizes employee well-being.

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the July 2025 print edition of Recycling Today under the headline “The building blocks of safety.”

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Safety is paramount in the recycling industry and, according to speakers at the Recycled Materials Association (ReMA) 2025 Convention & Exposition this May in San Diego, a strong safety culture takes leaders who make it a priority.

During the session titled Developing an Effective & Sustainable Safety Culture, Shannon Fertitta, the executive director of the Global Recycling Standards Organization, a group that administers a variety of standards and best practices for the resource conservation sector, including the Recycling Industry Operating Standard (RIOS) developed by ReMA, laid out “building blocks” that can help establish a safety culture.

“I have had great success in using them, and that is why I can proudly say they work,” Fertitta said. “The systems do work, but you have to learn them. … All of us know that we need to figure out a way to bring our staff into one shared idea of safety culture.”

For Fertitta, that shared idea includes four critical pieces.

Building Block 1: Policies & procedures

The first step, Fertitta said, is to develop an environmental health and safety (EHS) management system—the framework—that provides a clear and concise set of policies that define a company’s commitment to safety and its expectations for employee safety behaviors.

This framework can be tailored to the size of a company, the types of activities taking place, the roles within a company and the risks associated with the work, among other factors.

“There’s a million different things you need to think about when writing these policies, but no two companies’ [sets] of policies and procedures are ever ... exactly alike,” Fertitta said. “They can’t be copied from another company. You can’t borrow a handbook from your neighbor who’s doing work similar to yours. You can’t call up a friend who works in another state and borrow theirs. You have to write [the policies and procedures] specific to your company.”

Additionally, implementing those policies should start with a potential employee’s first interview, not after hiring.

“When you’re interviewing somebody, invite your EHS compliance people into the conversation,” Fertitta said. “You want them to be right next to human resources and right next to the hiring manager. You want them to be part of that initial conversation because you need to be painting a very clear picture of how important workplace safety is.”

Building Block 2: Risk identification & hazard analysis

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The second step in developing a strong safety culture requires a company to identify the hazards or potential hazards associated with its operations and implement frequent safety checks and control measures to protect workers from those risks.

“You can do a risk assessment today, and then a week from now it’s become a little different,” Fertitta said. “The landscape of danger constantly evolves. New risks appear, so it’s very important that you’re always paying attention.”

However, frequent checks can only help so much unless employees feel comfortable addressing potential hazards with management, so Fertitta noted it’s important to encourage an open line of communication.

“Your staff should always feel comfortable communicating those risks,” she said. “Are you creating an open and welcoming line of communication to your workers? Do they feel comfortable coming to you and saying, ‘I was in the yard yesterday, and it looks like there is a hazard on the horizon. I wanted to let you know about it.’”

Fertitta stressed the importance of not being complacent.

“Don’t think that because you’ve never had an incident, never had an accident, that it can’t happen,” she continued. “It’s not a matter of if it’s going to happen. Something is going to happen in your facility, so don’t let a near-miss become a real workplace accident.

“You don’t ever want to have to make that call to a person’s family. You don’t ever want to not be able to send someone home at the end of the day if all you had to do was a hazard assessment to capture a potential for a real accident—that could have prevented someone from an injury, from an accident or, worse, from a loss of life.”

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Building Block 3: Comprehensive training & education

By now, safety policies and procedures will have been put in place, and the next step is to create training programs to ensure those policies are not only understood but enforced.

“Those pieces of paper are not going to be any good if [an employee] doesn’t know what they are and I don’t remind them constantly or communicate changes,” Fertitta said. “It’s going to be really important that you develop and implement training programs in your facility.”

She said using internal and external resources to develop those training protocols is crucial to ensuring the most well-rounded safety program that addresses relevant risks and hazards, safety procedures and best practices for companies in the recycling industry.

“There’s a million different ways you can create training programs that make sense for your company,” Fertitta continued. “You can scale them to how big or small you are [and] what activities are happening in your facilities.”

It also is important to establish some frequency of training and education.

“Safety training should not be one-and-done,” Fertitta said. “It’s a continuous part of your role and your employees’ role, so you have to empower employees to actively participate. You have to give them feedback and allow them to give you feedback on improving safety.”

She said employee feedback is an opportunity to improve a company’s overall safety culture as well as an opportunity to improve employees’ job performance.

“You can provide them with every piece of equipment, every training manual, every video, and they can still walk away and feel like there could be something more,” Fertitta said. “Listen to them,” she advised.

Establishing an internal safety committee is one way a company can empower employees to take each other’s safety into their own hands and invest in the overall company culture.

“The safety committee feels empowered. They are ready,” Fertitta said. “They grab their checklist every month, they walk through the facility together, they do inspections. It is powerful. It empowers them. And they’ll find something. … They capture those things because you’re [not walking] around the facility. You can’t possibly do that overnight. Empower them to take control of their safety.”

Building Block 4: Goal-setting & continuous improvement

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Monitoring performance and measuring data and feedback are part of the final building block to establish a culture that prioritizes safety.

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Regularly reviewing safety performance, identifying areas that need to be addressed and implementing corrective actions, as well as tracking progress over time, ensure safety protocols don’t fall through the cracks.

“If you identify a problem and you do nothing about it, what’s next? Something bad,” Fertitta said. “Once you track your progress, you can make plans to do better. You can make plans to set new goals.”

Goal-setting, however, doesn’t matter if workers are not motivated to achieve those goals, and Fertitta said it’s important for owners and managers to help employees avoid complacency.

Awards and recognition, including certificates, plaques, gift cards and enhanced titles, are ways to help acknowledge and reward employees for demonstrating safe behaviors and contributing to a positive safety culture.

“Recognition really goes a long way,” Fertitta said. “If your employees are doing a great job … they were following the rules, they put on their PPE [personal protective equipment] vest, they put on their goggles—whatever they were doing—if they were following the rules, acknowledge that.

“Rewards go a long way, and they really build up your safety culture.”

Implementing these building blocks is a way to establish a stronger safety culture in the workplace. However, Fertitta said, documenting everything you’re doing is the only way to ensure that culture remains in place.

“All those building blocks—writing the policies and procedures, doing a risk analysis, all the great trainings, all the committees—they don’t count if you can’t go back and read them and look at them and learn from them and share them with your staff,” she said.

“Employees stay where they feel safe. … When you create a workplace where your staff feels welcome, valued and safe, they are very likely to stay. And this includes not just paying attention to their physical health and well-being and their safety but their mental health.”

Fertitta said it’s important to ensure workers are in a good headspace and contributing to a healthy social atmosphere, which includes providing time and resources needed to recharge and “present the best version of themselves.”

“The recycling industry is not always the cleanest, shiniest, most fun place,” she said. “Some days you just need a rest. Some days you need a break. Your workers do, too. Your workers need that sometimes. Give them grace.”

The author is the managing editor of Recycling Today and can be reached at mmcnees@gie.net.

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