Zanshin - Judging from a quick skim read, the HSE guidance document cited by Jimothy seems to be very comprehensive. This is not surprising as it was produced in consultation with the highly commendable Waste Industry Safety and Health Forum (WISH).
From bitter past experience and observations of waste & recycling operations, it seems to me that good monitoring / supervision of waste/recyclables collection crews is essential to try and minimise the high risks posed to crew members and members of the public by such work which is commonplace on public highways. Why? Collection crews have an understandable tendency to try and cut corners in a bid to get their work done. This is especially so if they work on a "task and finish basis", i.e. they can go home or often to other regular jobs as soon as they've completed their collection round each day. Such corner cutting can include taking chances with unguided reversing of collection vehicles and also collecting from opposite sides of relatively busy roads which ought to be done with single-sided working. If crews know or perceive that their work is either not monitored or very rarely so, they are more likely to cut corners and think they'll keep getting away with doing so - until sadly something goes badly wrong.
Though the above comments may come across as derogatory about crews, I should add that the circumstances involved usually tend to stem from poor management in my experience. For example, some years ago, I happened to be visiting one of my then employer's primary schools and saw a refuse collection vehicle being reversed without guidance up the drive towards the school. I signalled the driver to stop and asked him and the crew member sat in the cab with him if they knew of a fatal incident involving another collection vehicle operated by their contract employer several months earlier. (In that incident, a member of the public, a pensioner with impaired hearing, was killed through being run over by a collection vehicle while being reversed without guidance.) They had heard about the fatal incident but neither their supervisor nor manager had thought it necessary to tell/remind them and other crews about reversing precautions after the incident. Moreover, they knew the fatal incident had happened on a public highway but somehow didn't seem to think there was an issue with unguided reversing towards a school. Even if no pupils or teachers were visible at the start of the reversing procedure, the driver might not necessarily have become aware of any who might subsequently enter his vehicle's path.
Also, one H&S adviser I know well, felt frustrated at the fact that whenever he saw and reported instances of unsafe practices to the management of one local refuse collection organisation, the usual response was to simply discipline or even sack the driver of the vehicle involved for not following the rules. The rationale for such an approach seemed to be that drivers, especially ones supplied by agencies, were expendable and could be easily replaced. Furthermore, when the adviser asked why supervisors didn't monitor crews from time to time, he got what he thought were feeble answers, notably that the crews could usually spot and recognise the supervisors or their vehicles when they arrived and therefore the crews would work in a safe manner while being observed! The adviser also thought that another aspect of the problem was that supervisors were usually ex-crew members who had been promoted. As a result they tended to try and remain on good terms with crew members but somehow couldn't grasp that their new role was very different and ought to involve (as per their job title) supervision of various matters including safe working.
For H&S professionals involved with refuse/recyclable collection work, it might be worth looking into the feasibility of 'shadowing' one or even a few collection crews. By this, I mean going out with a crew on their round to observe what their work involves, what sort of problems they encounter, etc., and of course chat with them. If you explain to a crew beforehand that you are not snooping on behalf of management but trying to improve your understanding of their work, they will probably be more accepting of your presence and willing to discuss things with you. Also, you might gain a better understanding of things like the limitations of rear-view TV camera systems and wing mirrors for dealing with the 'blind' area behind a collection vehicle. For various reasons I never shadowed a collection crew myself, but did so with other small groups such as pest control operatives and a crematorium team, and found it both useful and interesting. Also, as employees tend to appreciate the fact that someone, a neutral person other than their line manager/s, bothers to show an interest in their working conditions, shadowing has the capacity to raise/maintain the credibility of H&S professionals within the organisations involved.
Graham B