Andrew Kelly, 47, needed the major surgery after moving several objects weighing up to 40kg during an eight-hour shift. The yard supervisor for global recycling giant Sims Group UK, who has worked for the firm for 31 years, was unable to access lifting equipment when instructed to move heavy objects like lorry batteries and fridge motors to various parts of the yard for collection.

He said: “I knew that it would take me several weeks to recover from the operation so contacted the union because I was worried about what it would mean for me and my family financially.” He added: “The hernia was painful and it slowed me down a lot. I wasn’t able to lift and found walking difficult. Since the operation I have been able to return to work but I still suffer from some discomfort.”

Thompsons Solicitors, the law firm brought in by Mr Kelly’s union, GMB, to handle a compensation case, argued the Sims Group, part of the worldwide Sims Metal Management group, should have risk assessed the task and provided either equipment to move the objects or assistance from other employees. Mr Kelly has now received an undisclosed sum in compensation from the firm.

Andy Worth from the GMB said: “Long established employers like these really have no excuse not to think ahead when they ask employees to lift heavy weights with no help. Mr Kelly’s losses and pain lie at their door when a simple risk assessment could easily have avoided the accident.”

The company’s safety record has been called into question recently. Sims Group UK has been prosecuted twice by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in last three years for criminal breaches of safety law, the latest in April 2010 following a workplace death and resulting in a six figure fine.

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 from Rotherham, was airlifted to hospital in Leeds where he later died. Peter Lindon Davis, 51, from Barnsley, was taken to Sheffield’s Northern General Hospital with serious, “potentially life-changing”, head and body injuries.

Sterecycle suspended operations at the plant after the blast. Sterecycle chief executive officer Tom Shields said: “We clearly regret this incident and have advised the Health and Safety Executive. We will urgently investigate the causes of the incident and ensure that all necessary actions are taken.”

The company, whose Rotherham plant is in the middle of a rapid expansion plan, was voted ‘one to watch’ at the ‘clean and green’ Cleantech industry awards in November 2010.

Sterecycle’s news release on the awards noted: “Design and construction works are already underway to increase the capacity of the Rotherham plant to 240,000 tonnes per annum by mid 2011.” In November 2010, its capacity stood at 100,000 tonnes.

The case is the latest to highlight potential risks to workers in ‘green’ industries. This week it was revealed an investigation is continuing into an incident last year on an offshore windfarm when an 18-tonne section of turbine plunged into the sea.

The £1bn Walney Offshore Windfarm is being built in the Irish Sea, nine miles from Barrow. Nobody was injured but local media reported a source had claimed two workers badly shaken by the incident later quit.

Danish firm Dong Energy, which is developing the windfarm, and the Health and Safety Executive launched investigations and work was stopped for a week after the August 2010 incident.

NOT SUSTAINABLE Metal recycling giant Sims was named as a global recycling leader while awaiting an appearance in court on criminal safety charges relating to a workplace 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, part of the worldwide Sims Metal Management group, after truck driver Adrian Turner was crushed by a metal bale which rolled off the heap at the firm’s yard in Newport, south Wales.

Mr Turner, 50, from Wolverhampton, was delivering scrap to the site on 28 April 2008 and was directed to deliver his load to the metal shredder area of the yard. He left his cab and was opening the rear doors to his trailer when the one and a half ton metal bale on the scrap pile came loose and rolled down 20 feet straight into Mr Turner. He had not received any site safety induction from Sims UK Ltd and was following instructions given by Sims operatives when he was killed.

Sims Group UK Ltd pleaded guilty to safety offences. At Cardiff Crown Court on 14 April, the company was fined £200,000 and ordered to pay £57,500 costs.

HSE inspector Sarah Baldwin-Jones said: “Metal recycling yards can be extremely dangerous places so it’s imperative companies have safe working procedures and systems in place that are observed by all staff and contractors.”

A statement from the bereaved family said: “While the financial penalty handed down to Sims Group UK Ltd today offers little comfort to our family we hope that it serves a warning to those companies operating in the waste recycling industry. It should be an absolute priority to ensure death and injury to employees and others on site is avoided. We have been torn apart by Adrian’s death and wish that no other family has to endure the loss of a loved one in the manner we did.”

The death and the criminal safety prosecution do not appear to have overly tarnished the firm’s reputation.

In February 2010, parent company Sims Metal Management was named ‘Best Recycler of the Decade’ by UK trade magazine Materials Recycling Week (MRW).

MRW editor, Paul Sanderson, said: “Sims Metal Management is a huge global metals and electronics recycling company which has enjoyed a decade of international success. It has made acquisitions all over the world and built a new state of the art WEEE recycling facility in the UK, supporting the UK economy and providing jobs. Sims Metal Management is a true giant in the sector.”

Commenting on the best recycler recognition, Sims spokesperson Myles Pilkington said the company was “proud of the enormous strides forward we have taken in recent years in the areas of sustainability, health and safety and energy efficiency, all of which have enabled us to operate to the very highest international, environmental, health and safety and legally compliant standards.”

Also this year, Sims Metal Management was listed in the Global Top 100 Most Sustainable Corporations published by business publication Corporate Knights.

Group chief executive officer Dan Dienst commented: “Sims Metal Management’s inclusion is testimony to the company’s commitment to, and effective management of, the societal, environmental and governance factors impacting our business. We strive, as in all things, to do the right thing and always with a sense of urgency. Doing good and doing well are not mutually exclusive propositions at Sims Metal Management.”

That will be scant consolation to the family of Adrian Turner. Nor was this Sims’ only recent UK prosecution for criminal health and safety and safety breaches.

In February 2008, it was fined £13,000 and ordered to pay costs of £11,663.73 after an employee was injured when conveyors running to a fragmentiser at its Wimborne, Dorset, site started unexpectedly whilst he and a colleague were clearing a blockage.

The Health and Safety Executive, which prosecuted the company in both cases, still lists the company as a case history on good practice in the recycling industry.

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 of volatile chemicals close to unprotected electrical equipment and forklift trucks.

The breaches came to light during a joint investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and North Yorkshire Police following an arson attack by a former employee in October 2008. The arsonist, who was later convicted for his crime, had ready access to the drums, which he ignited to start a blaze.

After the hearing HSE inspector Stephen Britton commented: “BCB Environmental Management Ltd processed drums containing flammable liquid close to unprotected electrical equipment, creating a real risk that they could have gone up at any time.”

He said the “prosecution offers food for thought, not just for the management at BCB, but for all involved in the recycling industry working with similar equipment and materials; they must adhere to the relevant legislation at all times to protect lives.”

HSE inspectors also found a dangerous drum crushing machine in use at BCB, which contravened the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998. The court heard that a vital safety guard was missing from the machine, which exposed operators to dangerous internal mechanics, including a hydraulic ram capable of applying two tonnes of pressure.

Furthermore, employees would have struggled to stop the crusher should an accident have occurred because the safety stop switch was covered in grime and was almost unrecognisable.

HSE’s Stephen Britton added: “The removal of a safety guard on the drum crushing machine is unbelievable. The guard is there for one reason and one reason only, to protect workers. The consequences of exposing human limbs to a two tonne hydraulic crusher would be horrific.”

BCB’s news release after the 14 October 2008 fire was headed: “Fire in storage shed controlled. No-one hurt.” It quotes managing director Phil Boardman: “Although this was potentially serious, it has demonstrated the robustness of our safety procedures.”

BOMB PROOF Powys Council didn't bargain on people recycling explosives.

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 a skip at a recycling centre in Ystradgynlais. No-one was hurt but the situation could have been different with a “large number” put at risk, said the council. The first incident happened on 27 September 2009 at Ystradgynlais household waste and recycling centre, when the artillery shell was left by a metal skip. The police were called and it was taken away by the Army.

Two weeks later on 9 October, detonators were left by a chemical waste bank at Machynlleth recycling centre. They were taken away and disposed of by a specialist contractor.  In the latest incident, on 24 January 2010, a marine flare was discovered at Brecon household waste and recycling centre. The police were called and it was disposed of by the Army.

Councillor Ken Harris, who is responsible for waste and sustainability on the council, said: “Not only is disposing of these dangerous items in this way putting a large number of people at great risk, the individuals responsible are breaking the law and could find themselves liable for prosecution under explosive and terrorism legislation.”

David Ives, 56, an employee of Veolia ES (UK) Ltd, formally known as Onyx UK Ltd, was collecting refuse outside a pub in Easington, near Aylesbury when the incident happened on 5 May 2004. Aylesbury Crown Court heard that a recycling bin fell from the bin hoist on the recycling lorry and landed on Mr Ives’ head, killing him.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted Veolia ES (UK) Ltd, of Veolia House, Pentonville Road, London over the incident. The jury found the company guilty of criminal breaches of safety law. The company was fined £130,000 and ordered to pay costs of £220,000. It was the latest in a series of safety offences committed by Veolia to have attracted HSE enforcement action.

Commenting after the conclusion of the latest case, HSE inspector Dennis MacWilliam said: “This was an extremely tragic incident which has now left Mr Ives’ widow to continue life without a loving husband. It could have been avoided if only a few simple measures had been in place. Employers are legally required to make sure their equipment is regularly maintained and is fit for use by their workers. If the bin hoist on the recycling lorry had been maintained this incident would never have happened.”

While no mention of the conviction appears on the Veolia website, the company is less reticent when it comes to boasting about its safety successes. Just two weeks before the fatality conviction, a Veolia news release noted: “Veolia Environmental Services, the UK’s leading recycling and waste management company has achieved a major milestone in its environmental and safety performance. The company has achieved ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 certification for all its 350 sites across the UK.”

HSE’s prosecutions database reveals that Veolia (ES) was fined for serious safety breaches that resulted in injuries to workers in both 2006 and 2007, one relating to serious fall injuries and the other to exposure to acid fumes.

The safety watchdog’s enforcement notices database reveals it was issued safety improvement notices on seven occasions in 2008, once in 2007 and on six occasions in 2006. HSE’s prohibition noticed database shows violations at Veolia ES were so serious that HSE put an immediate stop to work once in 2008 and on three occasions in 2006, at different Veolia sites.

MATRIX RECYCLED This UK e-waste recycling giant recirculated mercury through the workplace via a defective ventilation system, resulting in gross exposures to the workforce.

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 site in Huddersfield, and five of them showed extremely high levels following the exposure in the 10 months between October 2007 and August 2008.

Several workers had reported ill health as a result, including a pregnant worker who was concerned her unborn baby was at risk.

The firm recycles electrical equipment including fluorescent light tubes containing mercury and TV sets and monitors containing lead.

Bradford Crown Court heard that ventilation problems at the plant meant employees were being exposed to potentially harmful emissions from both substances. Mercury vapour was released when the lighting tubes were crushed. Because carbon filters were not fitted on the purpose-designed machine, the contaminated air was itself recycled and pumped back into the premises. One of the ducts pumped contaminated air directly into the office area.

The firm is involved in litigation with the American suppliers of the processing equipment over the missing carbon filters which would have stopped any mercury emissions, the court was told.

On 5 February 2010, EWR was fined £140,000 and ordered to pay £35,127 costs after pleading guilty to criminal safety breaches, including three separate breaches of the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002, and one breach of the Control of Lead at Work Regulations 2002. 

Company director Craig Thompson, 38, was also fined £5,000 after pleading guilty to a criminal breach of the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002. The judge decided not to disqualify Thompson from being a director. The court was told he had financial difficulties, including debts of £80,000.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the UK government’s workplace safety enforcement agency, issued the company five Improvement Notices and one Prohibition Notice – putting an immediate stop to work -  in relation to the incident. Although the company’s own daily tests identified high levels of mercury at the premises, the closure of an oven used to dispose of the chemical failed to solve the problem and by August 2008 HSE had issued the prohibition and improvement notices against the company.

Prior to the prohibition notice, HSE staff had tested the urine of 35 employees at the premises and found 20 had higher than recommended levels of mercury.

Barrister Robert Smith QC, for the companies, said since the prohibition notice was served the firm had spent £350,000 installing an effective emission filter system and a further £281,000-a-year was being spent on additional managers and supervisors. He told the court tests on staff conducted in January 2010 showed all were under the recommended levels.

After the hearing HSE inspector Jeanne Morton said: “This is a shocking case involving a large number of employees, many of them young and vulnerable, who were suddenly faced with the worrying possibility of damage to their long-term health. The risks associated with handling toxic substances like mercury have been known for generations, so it is all the more unacceptable that something like this has happened. The company failed to see the risks created by their recycling work and failed to develop effective plans for safe working. They also did nothing to check their workers’ health after exposure.

“Workers have a right to expect a reasonable level of protection in the workplace, and employers have a legal duty to provide it.”

Max Folkett, site inspector for the Environment Agency, added: “We have worked closely with HSE and other organisations during the investigation which led to this prosecution. Electrical Waste Recycling Group Limited requires an environmental permit from us for the recovery and processing of hazardous waste and we routinely inspect the site to check the company is complying with the permit. We suspended the permit following this incident in August 2008, removing the risk of mercury escaping from the site, because of our concerns the operation posed a serious risk of pollution from mercury.”

Toxic metals use, far from declining, appears to be staging a comeback. Lead use has increased dramatically in recent years. And increased production of electronic equipment worldwide is set to see the use of lead soar over the next decade.

The long term downward trend in mercury production stalled in 2006 and 2007. Latest figures, published in the 2009 edition of the authoritative World Mineral Production, show 1.4 million kilograms were produced in each of these years, a figure the report suggests is an underestimate.

CAPTIVE VICTIMS Firefighters respond to a fire at the e-waste recycling facility at Atwater Prison, California - one of the for-profit prisons whose e-waste recycling programmes were found to have exposed inmates and workers to illegally high levels of toxins.

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 these illegal levels of exposure.

The December 2009 NIOSH report was submitted to the Justice Department Office of Inspector General as part of its system-wide review of all the federal prison e-waste recycling centers. This NIOSH report covered conditions at federal prisons at Elkton in Ohio, Texarkana in Texas, Marianna in Florida and Atwater in California and must be publicly displayed at each institution. Campaign organisation PEER – Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility – obtained a copy of the report and in January 2010 published it on its website.

The NIOSH report says recycling operations at the for-profit prisons involves inmates breaking up computer components, often with hammers. NIOSH concluded that, for years, these recycling operations lacked adequate containment to prevent workers from being coated with dangerous amounts of lead, cadmium and other heavy metals inside the hardware.

NIOSH says prison industry managers failed to assess risks adequately prior to work starting, failed to identify potential hazards with the result that “adequate hazard controls were not established for several years at some BOP [Bureau of Prison] institutions”; and failed to provide any “training, guidance or oversight needed to address health hazards associated with electronics recycling” to staff and inmate workers.

NIOSH found that prison staff and inmates had been exposed to illegally high levels of toxins for years at all of the facilities it inspected except the one at Marianna, Florida. This report is part of the Justice Department Inspector General (IG) investigation, begun in 2006, into occupational and environmental compliance of prison computer recycling operations and the accountability of managers who ignored previous reports of problems.

PEER executive director Jeff Ruch commented: “It is outrageous that federal prisons have been illegally undercutting legitimate recyclers to the potential detriment of their own staff and the inmates in their custody.”

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the UK government’s workplace health and safety watchdog, says it has “identified that a contributing factor may be that some local authorities are unclear what their legal duties are and mistakenly believe that putting a service out to contract relieves them of all health and safety responsibilities.”

HSE says it hopes new online guidance will help local authorities understand the importance of a sensible approach to health and safety when it comes to procuring and managing waste and recycling services, in a bid to help reduce death and injury. According to HSE figures, the recycling industry has nine times more fatalities than the national average and four times as many workers suffer injuries.

HSE chair Judith Hackitt said: “The guidance will help local authorities understand the full extent of their role when managing waste and recycling contractors. HSE wants to see occupational health and safety become an integral but common sense part of the specification, procurement and management of waste and recycling contracts.”

HSE research has also found workers in the waste and recycling sector have higher sickness rates.

FOUR FINGERS Plastics recycling worker Wesley Dickinson lost four fingers as a result of the negligence of his employer. The firm received a small fine.

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, said it regretted the accident in May 2008. Centriforce was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after the incident and was fined £2,500 this month by Liverpool magistrates and ordered to pay £2,438 in costs.

HSE inspector Martin Paren said: “This incident has had a devastating impact on Mr Dickinson, who is only in his early 20s. He cannot return to his old job and will not be able to do manual work in the foreseeable future, due to the limited strength and movement in his right hand.”

He added: “The company should have had a guard on the guillotine to prevent workers from reaching the blade. An automatic mechanism should also have been in place so that the power was cut if the guard was opened. Instead Mr Dickinson wrongly assumed that a colleague had switched the guillotine off, and he had four fingers cut off as a result.”