Bin lorry cameras to combat rough sleeper deaths

One of the UK's biggest waste companies is fitting cameras to its vehicles in a bid to reduce the number of homeless people killed after sleeping rough in industrial-sized wheelie bins.

Biffa says that its crews found 93 people sleeping in rubbish last year.

It says the cameras, fitted to 140 of its 800 trucks, would remind staff to check bins before emptying them.

Last year four people sheltering in bins died when they were tipped into the back of trucks.

Biffa's Tim Standring told BBC Radio 4's You and Yours the cameras would give drivers extra "peace of mind" and that some vehicles would also record footage from inside hoppers.

'Machines don't differentiate'

The company was not spying on its staff, he said, saying the move was designed to protect them from the "anguish" of not realising a person had been inside the bin.

Mr Standring, the firm's divisional health, safety, environment and quality coach, said: "If it's the only place you've got to stay and it's the most secure place I can kind of see the appeal, but the down side of it is if we don't find you, you're not going to survive."

He added: "Once you're in the hopper, the blade comes down and it crushes and breaks the waste and it will take it back into the body [of the vehicle] where it's compacted again.

"These machines won't differentiate between cardboard, wood and unfortunately people as well."

Biffa hopes that all of its refuse lorries will have the new technology by the end of the year.

The company formed a partnership with the Chartered Institute of Waste Management and homelessness service StreetLink to raise awareness of the issue of people sleeping in bins.

The organisations carried out research last year that showed that 28 of the 176 waste management organisations surveyed reported finding people sheltering in bins over the previous 12 months.