Routine inspection lands metal recycling firm with £650,000 fine
A routine inspection lands metal recycling firm with £650,000 fine following an investigation by Britain’s workplace regulator.
ASM Metal Recycling, which operates four other metal recycling sites, received enforcement action from the HSE for failing to implement effective control measures to protect workers.
HSE inspector, visited ASM Metal Recycling on 3 and 8 August 2023. She observes dangerous working practices, including a failure to segregate moving vehicles from pedestrians as waste was being manually sorted.
Inspection Reveals Workers at Risk
During her inspection, videos evidencing these practices are taken. The videos show three pedestrian workers, sorting waste in close proximity to three 360 grab excavators operating behind them. As they continue to hand-sort the waste, a red HGV skip lorry pulls forwards and reverses towards and passed them. At this point, two of the workers have their backs towards the still reversing HGV. Footage reveals no measures or barriers preventing the reversing vehicle coming into contact, causing injury, or worse, to the workers.
The subsequent HSE investigation further identified that ASM Metal Recycling Ltd had previously identified the risks of pedestrian-vehicle collision but had failed to implement effective control measures to prevent this. At these times, pedestrian workers were exposed to risks of being struck by a vehicle.
HSE had previously served enforcement notices on ASM Metal Recycling Ltd in 2010, 2014, 2016, 2018. HSE also wrote Notification of Contravention letters to the company in 2021 and 2023.
ASM Metal Recycling Ltd, pleaded guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act. They were fined £650,000 and was ordered to pay £5,885 costs at a hearing at Oxford Magistrates Court on 22 October 2024.
Scrap and metal recycling industry consistently poor fatal incident rate
HSE inspector said: “The scrap and metal recycling industry consistently had a poor fatal incident rate for many years.
“The most serious risk associated with manually sorting waste is a collision between a vehicle and a pedestrian. On average, there are around five fatalities each year in the waste industry, nearly half which relate to being struck by a moving vehicle.
“Incidents happen because working practices have failed to achieve effective segregation of moving vehicles from pedestrians. During my inspection it was clear that this was the case at ASM Metal Recycling, and the fact we had previously identified these areas of concern but they were not acted upon resulted in HSE’s prosecution of the company.”
Tip: HSE guidance can be found at: https://www.hse.gov.uk/waste/metals.htm
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