D&O Garbage Service completes first-year of program
Salem, OR — D&O Garbage Service Inc. in Salem is committed to keeping its workers safe, so much so that the family-owned company has completed its first year in Oregon OSHA’s Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program (SHARP).
SHARP, primarily set up to help small- and mid-size businesses, coaches companies on how to effectively manage workplace safety and health. In turn, companies are recognized for their success in reaching specific benchmarks during the five-year program.
D&O Garbage, which launched in 1956 and has grown into a multi-faceted provider of garbage and recycling collection services, made significant workplace health and safety improvements during its first year in SHARP. Those improvements included implementing a hearing conservation program; ending the use of a truck wash that contained hydrofluoric acid; installing fall protection in its maintenance shop; and, bolstering the company’s confined space program.
The company, which first committed to the SHARP process in February 2018, made those and other improvements with the help of Oregon OSHA safety and health consultants. It’s all part of what Tim Nichols, the company’s route and safety manager, describes as a business that treats its employees – all 34 of them – like family and that cares about the health and safety of its community, too. When employees raise safety or health concerns with managers or the safety committee, Nichols said, the company tackles those concerns quickly.
“Communication with and input from our employees is the foundation on which we have achieved SHARP certification through Oregon OSHA,” he said.
SHARP encourages Oregon employers to work with their employees to identify and correct hazards, develop and implement effective safety and health programs, and to continuously improve. The benefits of the program, which is part of Oregon OSHA’s consultation services, include lower injury and illness rates, decreased workers’ compensation costs, increased employee morale, and lower product losses.
Oregon employers that have been in business for more than one year are eligible to apply for SHARP. For information about the program, visit the SHARP program pages.
For information about Oregon OSHA’s no-cost consultation services, visit the Consultation services pages.