Exploring the prospective efficacy of waste bag-body contact allowance to reduce biomechanical exposure in municipal waste collection

Municipal waste collectors must avoid bag-body contact, requiring waste bags to be held further from the body. Donning sharps-proof clothing would permit bag-body contact, allowing the bag to be closer to the body, reducing biomechanical exposures. To test this hypothesis, 25 participants loaded waste bags into a simulated garbage truck hopper under two lifting (contact allowed, no contact) and bag mass (7 kg and 20 kg) conditions. Bottom-up rigid-link biomechanical modelling results including peak low back compression force, antero-posterior shear force and peak low back flexion angle were not different between the lifting conditions, but cumulative compression was decreased with bag-body contact, although only at the 20 kg mass. Bag mass had significant effects on outcome measures, causing compression to increase to 4663 (±697) N, exceeding recommended thresholds. Sharps-proof clothing and municipally mandated 23 kg maximum allowable bag mass restrictions may not sufficiently reduce biomechanical exposures to prevent MSD. •Sharps-proof clothing may not provide an efficacious intervention to reduce biomechanical exposure in MWC.•Handling of legislated maximum waste bag masses resulted in low back compression values exceeding injury risk thresholds.•Participants adapted their lifting motions based on bag mass, but not when afforded the opportunity for bag body contacts.