Tag Archives: Recycling

Heavy recycling work caused hernia

A UK employee of a global metals recycling giant needed surgery to correct a hernia which could have been avoided if the company had undertaken and acted on a simple risk assessment. Andrew Kelly, 47, needed the major surgery after moving several objects weighing up to 40kg during an eight-hour shift. The yard supervisor for […]
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Recycling death highlights green job dangers

A man has died after an explosion at a UK waste recycling plant which left another man seriously injured. The incident at the Sterecycle plant in Rotherham occurred mid-afternoon on 11 January. South Yorkshire Police said a waste incinerator had exploded, creating a hole in the factory’s wall. Michael Whinfrey, a 42-year-old father of three […]
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Recycling giant gets six figure fine after death

A global metals and electronics recycling company which claims to have “the very highest” standards of health and safety has received a six figure safety fine for criminal safety breaches after a lorry driver died when a crushed car fell from a scrapheap. The UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted Sims Group UK Ltd, […]
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Recycling firm fined after arson attack

A York hazardous waste recycling company has been fined £40,000 and £6,110 costs for failing to safeguard flammable liquid that was used in an arson attack on the business. BCB Environmental Management Limited pleaded guilty at Harrogate Magistrates Court to breaches of the Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmospheres Regulations 2002 (DSEAR) after illegally processing drums […]
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Unexploded bombs left at recycling centre

A Welsh council has warned people to be more responsible after an unexploded artillery shell, detonators and marine flares were dumped at its local authority recycling centres. Powys Council said it had been forced to call out Army bomb disposal experts and police three times during the last five months. The shell was left next […]
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Serial offender fined after recycling bin death

A company that says it is the UK’s leading waste and recycling firm and that parades its environmental and safety credentials has been fined £130,000 after a worker was killed when a 1,100-litre recycling bin fell on his head. David Ives, 56, an employee of Veolia ES (UK) Ltd, formally known as Onyx UK Ltd, was collecting […]
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Toxins were recycled in recycling firm air

One of the UK’s largest recycling firms and its director have been fined a total of £145,000 for “shocking” safety breaches that exposed workers to mercury fumes. Twenty employees of Electrical Waste Recycling Group Ltd (EWR), formerly known as Matrix Direct Recycling Ltd, had levels of mercury in their system above UK guidance levels at […]
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Poisonous record of prison e-waste recycling

US prisoners and staff supervisors were exposed for years to excessive levels of toxic heavy metals during computer recycling operations, a government workplace health research agency has confirmed. The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) report, however, says the absence of recordkeeping inside the prisons, made it impossible to confirm any health problems […]
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Confused UK recycling sector is really deadly

If you work in waste and recycling in the UK, you might not be reassured to hear it has a work fatality rate nine times the national average. And you might be even more alarmed when you hear some privatisation-happy local authorities are clueless when it comes to their legal responsibility to keep you safe. […]
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Four digit fine for four digit loss

A UK plastics recycling company has been fined £2,500 after a worker had four of his fingers severed. Wesley Dickinson, 22, was trying to remove a guillotine jam at Centriforce Products Ltd in Liverpool when his fingers became trapped. Doctors reattached two of his fingers, but they have limited movement. The company, which admitted breaching […]
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