Recycling May Ease Your Conscience, But for Workers, It’s Dirty, Dangerous and Even Deadly

[eridani]

http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/19066/recycling_may_be_a_good_thing_but_not_for_the_people_who_work_there

Generally, the hazards at scrap yards and sorting facilities are typical of any major industrial operation, with forklifts, trucks and conveyor belts in constant motion. At times, stacks of recyclables threaten to tip over and machines jam or break down. Safety measures to combat these hazards are well known and widely implemented in other industries. “This is not rocket science,” says Susan Eppes, a Houston-based safety consultant to the recycling industry.

Yet basic safety procedures are often ignored in recycling plants, experts say. Consider the case of Robert Santos, a 46-year-old line supervisor at a Republic Services plant in North Las Vegas, where he helped dump big mounds of recyclables onto a conveyor belt built into the floor. Using radios, workers would direct front-end loaders to push paper or plastics from a holding bay onto the belt, which rolled towards a baler. Safety inspectors later learned that it was common practice at the facility for employees to stand on the belt, even while it was moving, to help pull material from the holding bay, or to sweep up material along the sides of the belt.

On the morning of June 8, 2012, work at the sorting facility was delayed two hours because a wet mass of paper had clogged the holding bay, making it impossible for employees to transfer the material onto the conveyor belt. Once it was finally unjammed, Santos stood on the conveyor belt, yanking paper from the bay, when two to three tons of paper suddenly collapsed on top of him, according to the inspection report. A co-worker would later remember him shouting “Stop the belt! Stop the belt!” before he was engulfed in a pile of paper eight feet high.

After firefighters directed employees to use a loader to lift the paper off of him, Santos was found to have minimal brain activity. He was taken off life support six days later and died. The Nevada Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined Republic Services $5,390 for the incident. Asked to justify such a small fine for a fatal accident, the chief administrative officer of Nevada OSHA said the fine was in line with agency policy, noting that investigators did not find “clear indifference to employee safety and health” at the sorting facility. Republic Services did not respond to requests to comment for this story.

[Mbrow]

1. K&R

This is why I work union. We enforce safety in our industry and our owners still make more money then they know what to do with.

[awoke_in_2003]

2. A life isn't worth 6 grand

god bless the USA