Recycling firms fined for employee injuries

Recycling companies Neath Port Talbot Recycling and MSK Waste Management and Recycling, have both been fined after health and safety failings saw two workers injured in unrelated conveyor-belt incidents.

Last Friday (25 October) Swansea Crown Court heard how an ‘experienced worker’ had his right forearm amputated by a conveyor belt that he was attempting to clean at Neath Port Talbot Recycling Ltd’s plant in Swansea. 

Stephen John, 57, of Baglan Moors, Port Talbot, was asked to clean a conveyor that had become blocked with a sticky black substance known as ‘flack’. The court heard that the company had no risk assessment or safe system of work for completing this task, and ‘experienced employees’ like John had developed their own way of cleaning the conveyor belt roller.

As the control switch for the conveyor belt was located ‘some distance away’ from the actual conveyor, employees had devised a system to clean the rollers whereby one worker stood by the control switch (out of sight from the conveyor), and a second person inserted a bar and scraped the flack from the roller. He would then place his arm under the conveyor to wipe away the flack.

A command or signal would be then given to the switch controller and the conveyor was started and stopped quickly. The process was repeated until the roller was clean.

The court heard that on the day of the incident, John inserted his arm and was wiping the flack away. He then passed the bar to a work colleague. The switch controller misinterpreted this as a signal and started the conveyor, which severed John’s right forearm below the elbow.

On Friday, Neath Port Talbot Recycling pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 11 of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 and Section 2 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

The company was fined a total of £90,000 and ordered to pay costs of £50,000 in a prosecution brought by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

Company failure

Speaking after the hearing, HSE Inspector Sarah Baldwin-Jones said: “Mr John suffered a serious and permanent injury. The potential for greater harm or a fatal incident was also a realistic possibility.

“The company failed to fully guard the conveyor around the tail end roller and this failure resulted in employees having access to dangerous parts of the machine. The risk of entrapment is well known in the industry, and this company could have taken simple steps to fit guarding.

“There was also no line of sight between Mr John and the employee operating the machinery and the company failed to carry out a risk assessment when the conveyor was installed. They also failed to devise a safe way of cleaning the rollers and to instruct employees on how to clean them safely.”

MSK incident

Neath Port Talbot Recycling is the second recycling firm is as many days to be fined for breaching safety regulations, after MSK Waste Management and Recycling Ltd was fined £10,000 after a worker lost his arm in a similar incident.

Domingos da Conceicao Freitas, 28, had to have his dominant right arm amputated following the incident at MSK Waste Management and Recycling Ltd, on River Road, Barking, on 17 August 2012.

Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard on Wednesday (23 October) that after a blockage occurred on a picking line, one of MSK worker’s was injured trying to fix the problem without proper help. As with the incident at Neath Port Talbor, an ‘informal’ system had been developed to fix the problem, wherein a piece of wire was pushed through an opening in the side of the conveyor frame to hook items trapped between the roller and the belt. This usually was undertaken by two or three people – one to use the wire, one to stop the conveyor (via a control panel situated around 75 feet away and on a different level), and one to act as a go-between relaying instructions.

However, Freitas was asked by a supervisor to clear it while he and others took a break, and he attempted the procedure on his own. The court heard that Freitas’ arm was caught and drawn into a roller as he accessed the opening in the frame, as the conveyor belt was still switched on.

MSK was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after an investigation identified that the conveyor system posed a clear risk because it was missing ‘important safety guards’.

Waste sector ‘one of the most dangerous’

Injuries and deaths in the waste sector are not uncommon, and the HSE has branded the industry as ‘one of the most dangerous’ sectors to work in after finding that 10 workers and three members of the public suffered fatal injuries in the waste and recycling sector in 2012/13, compared with an average of six deaths in the past five years.

To reduce the number of people killed and seriously injured in the waste and recycling industry, HSE has published the ‘Waste Industry Safety and Health (WISH) blueprint 2012-15’, which outlines 24 ‘immediate action points’ that companies dealing with waste and recycling need to take to provide clearer training and safer workplaces.

Read more about the incidents at Neath Port Talbot Recycling and MSK Waste Management and Recycling, or find out more about the WISH blueprint.