Page 33 from: November 2015

31November 2015

recycling activities. More than 13 000 injuries
were reported, confirms the country’s Health
and Safety Executive (HSE) in its latest statistics.
Recycling is ‘a high-risk industry’, the safety
body goes on to underline. ‘It accounts for only
about 0.5% of the employees in Britain, but 2.6%
of reported injuries to employees.’
In the UK’s waste and recycling industry, there
were four fatal injuries to workers in 2013/14;
this compares with an average of nine over the
previous five years. In the period from 2009/10
to 2013/14, almost three in 10 fatalities (29%)
were due to being struck by vehicles while near-
ly four in 10 of the major/specified injuries
reported (39%) were due to slips and trips.

The business of safety
These are dramatic figures that continue to chal-
lenge the industry as well as bodies such as the
HSE. In 2014/15, approximately 1000 facilities
and scrap yards across the UK were visited by
HSE inspectors. Furthermore, the organisation
has launched several recycling safety education
initiatives while also participating in major con-
ferences and trade shows, such as the latest
Recycling and Waste Management (RWM)
event held in Birmingham during September.
Another effect of the growing emphasis on this
topic is that it boosts business for the increasing

number of companies that make a business out
of safety.
Safety within the scrap yard is hot, as confirmed
at RWM by suppliers of safety tools and equip-
ment. These included UK-based PK Safety
which specialises in clothing and equipment for
personal protection – from reflective orange and
yellow overalls and jackets to helmets and spe-
cial work glasses. ‘Over the past few years, PK
has welcomed a rapidly-growing number of
recycling companies to our client base,’ con-
firmed its marketing manager Obe Nunn.
‘Boosted by strengthened regulations and the
ever-growing number of fatal incidents and
injuries, companies and managers do their
utmost to protect their workers and invest in
reliable products.’

A safety benchmark
In a bid to reduce the number of fatal accidents
and injuries in US scrap yards, ISRI established
its so-called Circle of Safety programme in 2014
to benchmark safety in facilities nationwide and
so help change statistics ‘that have been over-
shadowing our industry for a long time’.
More recently, ISRI and the US Department of
Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Admin-
istration (OSHA) announced the formation of
an alliance to promote health and safety in

workplaces throughout the recycling industry.
Under this initiative, ISRI will team up with
OSHA to provide recyclers with guidance and
training to protect the health and safety of work-
ers within the scrap recycling sector.
‘Through our initiatives, we have made great
strides in improving worker safety throughout
the industry but we know that further efforts
are still needed,’ says ISRI’s chairman Doug
Kramer. ‘Now with the support of OSHA behind
us, ISRI will be able to provide even greater
resources for our members to ensure their work-
ers return home safely to their families every
night.’

Helping cut accidents
On an individual business level, US entrepre-
neur and recycler Greg Brown has put substan-
tial effort into promoting safety standards by
providing training to his customers. Brown
operates three scrap yards in North Carolina
and is the owner of Ohio-based roll-off trailer
manufacturer Benlee. Following a number of
accidents at US scrap yards, Benlee launched a
campaign to warn customers of the risks.
Two incidents occurred in early 2015 where
bridges were hit as a result of driving with the
hoist up. One resulted in a fatality because the
driver was not wearing a seatbelt.

‘We lost a man because people were in a hurry’
August 10 2011 is a date that will be etched forever into the
memory of Jerry Heitman, safety manager at the Sadoff scrap metal
recycling company based in Fond-du-Lac, Wisconsin, USA.
On that day, a tragic accident claimed the life of his colleague
Daniel Lehner at the age of just 34 – an accident that would not
have occurred if safety procedures had been strictly followed,
according to Heitman. When changing the blades of a shear, Lehner
became trapped in the machine and could not breathe. ‘There was
no blood, no gruesome sight, just a lot of emotions, shock and
disbelief,’ he recalls. ‘Daniel died because we failed to create a
safety culture. We thought we had it all well organised, but in fact
we had not.’ For instance, procedure forms had not been filled in
correctly and frequently.
‘He lost his life on assumption,’ Heitman continues. ‘We lost a
bright, talented young man because people were in a hurry. We
killed a young son because we didn’t hold people accountable. You
can have all the fancy training programmes, you can have all of the
machine-specific procedures, conduct your annual audits and have
your safety talks. But if your culture is not speaking, living, breath-
ing safety, shortcuts will be taken.’
At Sadoff, the lessons have been learned – albeit the hard way,
according to Heitman. ‘Our employees understand the importance
of looking out for one another,’ he asserts.

For Heitman, the top four lessons are: ‘Procedures should always
be reviewed again when they carry over to another day; have
trained, approved auditors/supervisors that review every procedure
and sign off before a machine is started; train employees to check
each item for themselves; and no-one is exempt, no-one has special
privileges. Safety has to be owned from the top down.’

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Jerry Heitman:
‘Safety has to
be owned from
the top down.’