David Biderman Talks About the Importance of Safety
It doesn’t matter whether you work for a Canadian or American company or agency. It doesn’t matter whether you work for a small or large employer. It doesn’t matter whether you are in Portland, Maine or Portland Oregon. We all share a single goal: making sure each and every person gets home to their loved ones at the end of each day, without injury or incident.
It isn’t easy. There are more than 100,000 solid waste and recycling collection trucks in operation in the United States and Canada every day, bringing trash and recyclables to thousands of transfer stations, landfills, waste-to-energy facilities, composting facilities, and recycling centers. Our workers interface with their trucks, heavy equipment, and the motoring public on an ongoing basis as they collect and manage the trash and bring it to a disposal facility and face a wide variety of safety hazards along the way.
Safety is a way for SWANA to talk to this incredibly diverse industry with a single, meaningful, and powerful message: we want you to be safe. We want you to stay alive. I am very proud of how safety has been institutionalized into SWANA’s fabric, though the chapter’ Safety Ambassadors, our Hauler Safety Outreach events, Safety Awards, and frequent safety training events. Please continue to support our efforts by putting Slow Down to Get Around stickers on your trucks, attending an upcoming safety program, and reminding employees about best practices. Take the SWANA Safety Pledge.
Nothing we do is more important.
David Biderman, Executive Director and CEO of SWANA
David Biderman is the Executive Director and CEO of the Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA), and has been a leader in the waste industry for more than 20 years. Mr. Biderman joined SWANA in April 2015 after 18 years with the National Waste & Recycling Association, where he was their General Counsel, Vice President for Government Affairs and Safety Director. Mr. Biderman is the former industry lobbyist in New York City and is very passionate about safety. Mr. Biderman was the recipient of Preco’s Safety in Motion award for 2016, given to an individual who is making a difference on safety. He has provided safety and compliance training to thousands of workers throughout the United States and Canada. Prior to entering the waste industry, Mr. Biderman was an attorney at the Washington DC law firm Steptoe & Johnson, where he specialized in environmental and transportation law. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and Johns Hopkins University.
