Tag Archives: Recycling
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 [...]
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 Also tagged Britain, Electrical Waste Recycling Group, lead, mercury, 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 [...]
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.
The [...]
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 safety regulations, [...]
First lead, now mercury makes a toxic comeback
The world could be facing an epidemic of poisonings by highly toxic metals you’d be forgiven for thinking were a hazard of yesteryear – and all in the name of the environment. The problem arises from new uses for the toxins in “green” products or from a disregard for health and safety in recycling and [...]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Electrical Waste Recycling Group, lead, mercury, waste industry 3 Comments
We told you lead was dangerous
Earlier this month, this blog reported that although more than half of the lead we use worldwide is recycled, something presented by the industry as a major green advance, production of the known poison, carcinogen, neuro- and reprotoxin is increasing (Lead – a case of right answer, wrong question).
And those workers involved in recycling activities – [...]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged hazards magazine, Health and Safety Executive, lead, sunsetting chemicals 1 Comment
Lead – a case of right answer, wrong question
Green initiatives like recycling can have remarkable successes. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they are good for the planet, communities or those working in ‘green’ jobs.
A 2009 report, ‘World Mineral Production 2003-2007’ [pdf], notes that more than 50 per cent of refined lead is now produced from recycled material, dramatically reducing energy consumption during production.
But [...]
The human price of dangerous work
Badly managed ‘green’ industries cause human tragedies as readily as their non-green industrial counterparts.
Bert Reeves, 62, was fatally injured when a skip lorry at a waste recycling company reversed over him at a transfer station on 21 June 2007.
Shanley and Sons Ltd was fined £80,000 and ordered to pay costs of £25,000 at a 25 September [...]
Unexploded bombs left at recycling centre