Joint investigation of working conditions, environmental and system performance at recycling centres – Development of instruments and their usage

Recycling is a new and developing industry, which has only been researched to a limited extent. This article describes the development and use of instruments for data collection within a multidisciplinary research programme “Recycling centres in Sweden – working conditions, environmental and system performance”. The overall purpose of the programme was to form a basis for improving the function of recycling centres with respect to these three perspectives and the disciplines of: ergonomics, safety, external environment, and production systems. A total of 10 instruments were developed for collecting data from employees, managers and visitors at recycling centres, including one instrument for observing visitors. Validation tests were performed in several steps. This, along with the quality of the collected data, and experience from the data collection, showed that the instruments and methodology used were valid and suitable for their purpose.