Occupational health and safety problems encountered of solid waste workers working in Çerkezkoy municipality

As a consequence of development of humanity, the change in consumption patterns and the establishment of the disposable mentality in societies,domestic solid wastes have become a serious danger on the ecosystem and it has become indispensable to manage them in an optimum way. Nowadays, one of the most important service and activity areas of local governments is undoubtedly the management of domestic solid waste. As a matter of fact that domestic solid wastes are spread over a wide scale requires expertise in waste management, while increasing the risk, threatening the occupational health and safety of the personnel working in these lines of works of local governments. When examined at the waste hierarchy, the steps from the production of the waste to its final disposal are unfortunately not taken seriously enough both in our country and around the world - if we not counting a few good example countries. The increase in the amount has led to an increase in the number of personnel working in the solid waste line of work. The separation of waste at its source, its reuse, implementation in accordance with the steps of recycling and recovery, will not only reduce the waste density in household solid waste containers and decrease the budgets allocated by local authorities to these services but also reduce occupational health and safety risks faced by workers in the household solid waste collection, transportation, and disposal sectors. In the study I conducted on the occupational health and safety problems faced by the solid waste workers working in Çerkezköy Municipality, a survey was applied to the workers in the solid waste sector, and the findings were examined. Furthermore, local legislation was examined, data obtained from national and international studies were interpreted.