Driven to Protect: Director of Safety Dan Tilden

Safety isn’t just a department, it’s a mindset. For Dan Tilden, Director of Safety at Casella, that mindset was forged through years of frontline experience and a deep respect for the people who keep operations moving. His journey from driver to director reflects a belief that safety starts with trust, training, and showing up for each other every day.

What inspired you to pursue a career in safety, and what keeps you motivated today?

Prior to working for Casella, I operated a large CDL driving school and got to see firsthand the importance of ensuring someone has the knowledge and tools to safely perform the tasks set before them. That principle continued at Casella with my role as Operations Manager of the Rutland Hauling Division, making sure expectations were known, expectations were met, training was understood, and most importantly, my people were taken care of. A position became available within the Safety Department, and it was the perfect opportunity to be of service to a broader group of personnel. My motivation comes from knowing people are in need and there could be something I can do to help them.

What does a strong safety culture look like to you, and how do you build it across diverse teams?

To me, it’s when an organization, from top to bottom, shares the same behaviors and attitudes toward keeping our people safe, protecting the public, and preserving the company. When that occurs, compliance becomes almost effortless, and the negative impacts of injuries and incidents begin to wane, resulting in significant gains across many aspects of the company. Sharing the Casella culture with new and diverse teams certainly requires a lot of effort. You need to speak and engage with the people who that culture shift will impact. You speak to them in terms and situations they are familiar with, using practical experience so they can understand the principles and reasons behind possible changes, and, most importantly, you do what you say you’ll do and lead by example, being of service to them. 

What do you enjoy most about your job?

The most enjoyable part of my job is the people I get to meet and work with. We have so many fantastic employees within Casella, and the best part of my role is being of service to them and spending time with them. We offer guidance to ensure compliance and act as the backstop when ideas are pitched. We are with them when sad things occur, and we’re with them when they celebrate milestones and achievements. I have gathered many amazing friends during my time with Casella, and I’ll keep them with me for the rest of my life.

How do you balance being proactive with being realistic when it comes to safety goals?

The best stance to have towards being safe is a proactive one. However, every day this industry faces so many variables and paths it can’t control, like other drivers or the weather, that it can make it seem like being proactive is an impossible ask, but it isn’t. By performing risk assessments and job hazard analysis, we can identify the leading indicators that pose the greatest threat of causing harm. We then implement controls to prevent or protect against those threats, but we also understand there are inherent risks associated with this business. We will never stop servicing our customers, so we must be realistic and put in place policies and procedures to ensure employees follow the appropriate steps to remain safe.

How do you help our teams stay ahead of emerging risks, especially with evolving equipment and environmental conditions?

The world continues to change, and we must be able to change with it. As new hazards and risks are recognized, we perform analyses to identify the steps needed to address them, and we provide that information or material to the field for implementation. We must be open to new or unfamiliar opportunities for improvement, such as new technologies like AI and LIDAR within our equipment, and adapting to new systems like root cause analysis or telemedicine. Whether it be environmental, societal, or political, we must always be ready to shift as changes occur to avoid service failures, reduce risk exposure, and remain compliant.

Can you share a moment when you realized your safety strategy and efforts were truly making a difference?

One example I can share is an opportunity to speak directly with a group of employees who seemed disinterested and stoic. We discussed some safety topics, but more importantly, I got to engage with these folks, one garbage man to another, sharing stories I knew they could relate to.  Explaining those near misses that occurred in years gone by proves we’ve been there, we’ve done that, and we know what we’re talking about. This allowed them to see we both want the same things, they just needed the human element to make the connection that we aren’t a big company that isn’t concerned about its employees. 

What are the most pressing safety challenges unique to the waste and recycling sector today?

Two pressing challenges we face are distracted driving and lithium-ion batteries.

Distracted driving, whether it's from fatigue, cell phones/technology, or rocking out to Baby Shark, is, without a doubt, the leading cause of our crashes. We can be impacted by another distracted driver on the street, or our own driver can forget that there is a light pole behind them after they service a customer. Our challenge is to train and manage our people and do our best to correct what we can control, but we must also be prepared to deal with what we can’t. We can ensure our drivers are prepared for the road by hiring the right candidate after appropriate due diligence, performing a complete and thorough onboarding process, clearly communicating expectations, managing personnel to ensure those expectations are met, and making corrections when deficiencies are identified.

So many products and devices are brought to life by lithium-ion batteries sealed inside.  Many of these items are low-cost, and with no way to replace the battery, it can be more economical to replace them than to repair them. Those discarded items end up in the waste and recycling stream because the public has been unaware of the hazards posed by those batteries. As those batteries reach the tip floors, they can be crushed by rolling equipment, smashed by sorting machines, or compressed in balers, which can cause a fire that burns aggressively until the fuel is gone. This thermal event typically ignites the material around it, and that fire can quickly spread out of control.

How do you measure success beyond incident rates and compliance scores?

I measure success by having personnel and management believe in the mission of safety, which is ultimately to have our people go home in the same condition in which they showed up. As we engage with our personnel, we can learn about situations that could cause service failure or injury. Once that information is discovered, it must be acted upon, this achieves two goals: it corrects an issue that has the potential to cause harm before it occurs, and it validates the concern of the employee, letting them know that the system works, that Casella cares for their people, and that the employee should continue this practice of identifying issues for correction. These leading indicators are actionable items we can address as leaders to prevent problems that could be minor or catastrophic. That is how I measure success in Safety, the incident rates and compliance scores will naturally improve as our proactive safety culture takes root.

Looking ahead, what’s your vision for safety at Casella over the next five years?

My vision for Casella Safety is a cohesive department that continues to meet the needs of its customers with integrity, wisdom, compassion, and consistency. Regional training centers for new personnel, ALL levels of personnel, utilizing a Learning Management System that meets people where they are, so they can fully comprehend what is being delivered and taught, maintaining relationships with state and federal agencies to stay on top of changes in regulations and to call upon with questions or requests for employee engagements, continuous improvement and training for current safety managers to hone our skills to better serve our customers, and to grow with Casella in our new market areas and to spread our culture to continue to protect our people. 

Ultimately, it’s Safety working together with all departments to ensure a consistent message so we can all support one another to protect our people and Casella.