Accidents/incidents in waste management and recycling - learning from experience
An agency employee working at a council recycling facility died in the hopper of a baling machine when he tried to clear a blockage.
He had climbed on top of the conveyor feeding the baler, without first isolating the machinery and fell into the baling chamber, activating the baling mechanism which trapped him against fixed parts of the machine.
The council had failed to provide/maintain:
- a safe system of work to ensure the baling machine and all associated equipment was fully isolated before it was accessed
- adequate training, supervision or instruction
The council were fined £60 000 together with costs amounting to £23 691 at the Crown Court.
A worker was killed while driving a telescopic reach truck or telehandler, pushing tyres towards a shredder (prior to shredding). The truck toppled sideways and crushed the driver between the side of the truck and the ground. A risk assessment, adequate supervision and suitable training would have prevented this workplace death. Two waste management companies were fined a total of £140 000 in court following the investigation.
This accident is one of several identical fatalities in the recycling industry that could have been avoided if employees had been trained to clear blockages safely. Operators should be told how to tackle the job and employers should provide a written system for this work and monitor that systems are followed. Where access is required into hoppers, baling chambers or rams then written systems of work should be backed up with a full permit-to-work system.
To see a checklist that will help you to risk assess your machinery, please see:
Two people in a portable cabin miraculously escaped with only a broken collar bone and burns when a skip loader vehicle careered down a steep embankment, crossing a main road and crashing into the cabin.
The skip loader vehicle 'ran away' out of control when it was attempting to lift a skip on a slope. Despite the handbrake being applied during the lift the vehicle moved as deployment of the stabiliser legs at the rear of the vehicle lifted the rear wheels thus negating the brakes. The vehicle rolled down the slope on its unbraked front wheels and the wheels of the stabiliser legs.
This is the most recent in a series of events, including a fatality.
'Runaway' skip loader incidents such as this can be eliminated by all wheel braking and use of stabiliser legs with flat feet. Operators of skip loaders should be ensuring that their vehicles are equipped to prevent these incidents. All new vehicles should be specified to ensure these standards are met and retrofitting of older vehicles is reasonable and practicable.
A company director received a 12-month custodial sentence following the death of an employee clearing a blockage in a paper shredding machine.
The machine contained a series of hammers projecting 15 cm from a shaft, which revolved at high speed. The investigation revealed that the machine was not securely isolated while the unblocking work was being carried out, there was no safe system of work and the electrical controls for the machine were contaminated with dust.
The HSE investigating Principal Inspector said ‘This was an horrific incident that was entirely foreseeable. Isolating the machinery, a safe system of work for clearing blockages, together with adequate instruction, training and supervision of staff would have prevented this incident’. Evidence showed that the director chose not to follow the advice of his H&S consultant and instead adopted a complacent attitude, allowing the standards in his paper recycling business to fall.
The custodial sentence followed the director's earlier guilty plea to manslaughter and health and safety charges. His company was also fined £30 000 with costs of £55 000.
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