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Homeless risk being crushed to death

21st December 2007

An agonising death awaits rough sleepers if they continue to shelter in waste bins.

That's the warning from one of the UK's largest waste company's, Biffa, which is finding more and more people sleeping rough in waste containers in towns and cities across the UK.

Being tipped from a bin into a waste lorry results in a fall of around 8ft onto a solid steel floor. Anyone who survives this drop could then be crushed to the death by the vehicles compaction equipment. Cries for help can go unnoticed over the noise of the vehicles hydraulics.

Biffa is asking companies to check their bins and report any incidents of homeless people using them for shelter to their waste contractor.

"If we know people are using bins for shelter, we can warn our collection crews to be extra careful"; said Biffa collection director, Nick Gregg. "We have checking procedures and warning stickers, but anyone who is asleep, intoxicated or determined to remain hidden probably won't realise the danger they're in until its too late."

"In the first quarter of this year alone, we've discovered as many people as we did in the whole of last year. And that's just Biffa! Given the number of bins on UK high streets, supermarkets and retail/industrial parks, there could be hundreds of people at risk. It's a growing problem and we'd like to take action before someone is killed."