Author Archives: Rory
US green watchdog backs worker role in inspections
The US government’s environmental watchdog has accepted workers and union reps should be allowed to participate in official workplace safety inspections conducted under the Clean Air Act, according to a report in the March issue of Life Lines, the newsletter of the Laborers’ Health and Safety Fund of North America (LHSFNA).
The clarification came when the [...]
Indonesia turns back illegal US e-waste
Intervention by an environmental campaign group has stopped an illegal shipment of nine sea-going containers of US hazardous electronic waste being exported to Indonesia.
The block on the shipment from Massachusetts firm CRT Recycling Inc. was made possible due to a tip off to the Indonesian environment ministry from the Basel Action Network (BAN). BAN volunteers [...]
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged BAN, Basel Action Network, E-waste, Electronics TakeBack Coalition, Indonesia, USA Leave a comment
Green capitalism can be just as deadly
If you are one of those employed in the rapidly expanding green jobs sector, don’t assume your green employer is any less likely to exploit and endanger you. This is the message from Laurent Vogel, director of the European TUC’s health and safety research arm, HESA.
In an editorial in the latest issue of the organisation’s [...]
Posted in Uncategorized 1 Comment
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 to [...]
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 refuse [...]
Shorter working week is ‘inevitable’
A shorter working week is set to become the norm, according to a report from the new economics foundation (nef), a UK based think tank. Its study, 21 hours, forecasts a major shift in the length of the formal working week as a consequence of dealing with key economic, social and environmental problems.
The nef researchers [...]
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged nef, new economics foundation, The Ecologist, working hours, working time Leave a comment
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 the [...]
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Britain, Electrical Waste Recycling Group, lead, mercury, Recycling, UK 1 Comment
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 from [...]
Greenpeace adds to Samsung cancer pressure