Global recycling association has surveyed the world’s shredder operators to identify workplace accident patterns at shredder yards.
The scrap recycling industry has been identified by government agencies in the United States and elsewhere as one where workplace accidents pose an outsized risk.
In the U.S., the Washington-based Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) has placed a consistent emphasis on its safety programs in the past two decades. The Shredder Committee of the Brussels-based Bureau of International Recycling (BIR), meanwhile, has undertaken an effort to better understand when and why accidents occur at scrap shredding facilities.
The BIR issued its Shredder Safety Survey Report for 2019 in 2020, and in early June of this year announced an updated Shredder Safety Survey Report for 2020.
The reports summarize the findings of surveys sent to BIR member companies that operate shredding plants with 1,000 horsepower motors or larger.
Christopher J. Bedell, senior vice president and general counsel with the U.S.-based David J. Joseph Co. (DJJ), has been among those leading the survey effort, along with Scott Newell III of U.S.-based Newell Recycling Equipment and BIR staff member Ross Bartley, who is the bureau’s trade and environment director.
While shredder accidents may bring to mind the gruesome outcome of a worker entering an active, rotating shredder, the reality is somewhat less intense, with no fatalities reported in the 2019 survey.
Nonetheless, BIR survey respondents recorded several different types of lost-time accidents, including at least one amputation and several contusions and fractures. Along with fractures and contusions, the other most common injury was listed as “foreign body in eye.”
“The need for eye protection stands out from this analysis,” the BIR comments in its published survey results. Nearly 40 percent of the reported injuries involved a worker’s hand or arm, compared with 24 percent for the eye, face and head.
More than half of the reported incidents (53 percent) occurred during maintenance work, and “most accidents were at the material pile, the shredder infeed, at metal separation and at ground level,” the BIR states in its report.
Conveyors, while not carrying out a loud or destructive process like the shredder, were commonly involved in accidents. Twenty percent of injuries occurred during the picking process, and 18 percent during conveyor repair or maintenance work, representing two of the three largest tasks being performed when an injury took place.
Bedell of DJJ is urging the BIR to consider a safety “summit” of shredder operators who can consider and discuss the survey results. Such a discussion, says Bedell, could then lead to actions “to address the highest risks in shredder operations.”
Adds Bedell, “It’s always valuable to share instances and stories, and to take lessons from them.” He says a summit meeting also could help identify trends that might not show up at individual yards, creating policies designed to prevent accidents.
In the recommendations section of its 2019 survey report, the BIR Shredder Committee writes that one of the best ways to prevent injuries is one of the oldest and most enforceable for managers: wearing proper personal protective equipment (PPE).
“The need for eye protection stands out from this analysis, as well as the need to take care around heavy and sharp objects,” writes the committee. “The analysis reinforces the need to offer protection in particular for the head (hard hat), eyes (safety glasses), hands (gloves) and feet (safety boots). Leg protection may also be considered.”
The 40-page BIR Shredder Safety Survey Report for 2019 can be downloaded from this web page.
AAPA representatives say shortage of inspection officers needs to be addressed.
Overseas shippers have been complaining about high pricing, a lack of available containers and difficulty in making bookings that actually come off as scheduled for some time. The issues are in part because shipping containers have been going back to Asia empty rather than being used to backhaul shipments of recyclables. But two representatives of the American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA), Washington, point to another issue that has exacerbated the situation.
Kristen Decas, chief executive officer of the Port of Hueneme in California, and John Wolfe, chief executive officer of the Northwest Seaport Alliance, a port authority based in the Puget Sound, speaking on behalf of members of the AAPA, met with Republicans on the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security June 30. At the meeting, Decas and Wolfe discussed ongoing challenges faced by ports regarding U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) shortfalls in carrying out its inspection mission and urged Congress to help, according to a news release from the AAPA.
In their statements, Decas and Wolfe noted that ports are dedicated to their partnership with CBP, ensuring safety and security are carried out through the agency’s inspection mission. However, CBP chronically has been understaffed. According to CBP’s own Workplace Staffing Model, the agency has indicated it is short at least 1,400 officers, the AAPA representatives said. This deficit means that CBP limits the number of inspection officers deployed, creating processing delays and further contributing to port congestion.
To alleviate this bottleneck, they said, ports have been burdened with paying for overtime reimbursement to CBP officers. In addition, CBP has been increasingly making demands that ports pay for on-site facilities for CBP’s officers. These demands often include extravagant items, Decas and Wolfe added.
“Congress must fully fund and invest in CBP to ensure seaports don’t continue to bear the burden of facilitating unbearable demands,” said Rep. Carlos Gimenez, ranking member of the House Transportation and Maritime Security Subcommittee. “The work our seaports conduct to facilitate trade and commerce is essential to our economic recovery. Security at our ports has never been more important.”
Decas and Wolfe urged Congress to ensure that CBP is adequately staffed and that officers and resources are deployed equitably to avoid further cargo processing delays, the AAPA says. They noted that President Biden’s fiscal 2022 budget includes $660 million for land port of entry upgrades but ignores seaports. They suggested that Congress should call for an immediate halt on facilities demands at ports and require a report from CBP about their needs.
AAPA says it is working to set up a similar conversation with Committee Democrats.
Innovate UK grant to help fund recycling education project in Kent.
RECOUP (Recycling of Used Plastics Ltd.,) Peterborough, U.K., has received a grant from Innovate UK to co-fund an industry-led communications and behavior change research project in Kent that brings together Kent Resource Partnership, Veolia, Viridor, Ocado, Ecosurety, British Plastics Federation, Plastics Europe and PPS Recovery Systems.
RECOUP’s Pledge2Recycle Plastics will connect with the 673,00 households across Kent over a 12-month period to gain citizen insights, deliver plastics recycling messages and evaluate the resulting tonnage and contamination data, the organization says. The project will deliver and measure over time the impact recycling communications campaigns have on behavior change. The nonprofit says it expects the insights collected will provide evidence to support future plastics recycling engagement strategies.
Anne Hitch, head of citizen and stakeholder strategy at RECOUP and Pledge2Recycle Plastics project lead, says, “This project represents a fantastic opportunity for the plastics industry opportunity to better understand better how we can reach 2025 recycling targets. The citizens of Kent have an opportunity to help formulate future policy and provide the UK with a blueprint demonstrating the links between plastics recycling communications and behavior change.”
The project will connect with more than 1.5 million citizens to deliver advice on plastics recycling that has been agreed on by all Kent councils, Veolia and Viridor to provide a consistent message with resources based on previous piloted Pledge2Recycle Plastics “Cutting the Confusion” campaigns and resource pack aligned with WRAP and Recycle Now.
Councillor Nick Kenton, chairman of the Kent Resource Partnership, says, “The 13 Kent councils are very pleased to be working alongside RECOUP and other partners to deliver this Kentwide plastics recycling campaign. The aim of this project is to engage with Kent residents to understand if there is any confusion when it comes to plastics recycling and how we can encourage citizens to reduce, reuse and recycle plastics. We look forward to seeing which interventions help with the quality and quantity of plastic recycling here in Kent.”
Helen Jordan, senior recycling issues executive at the British Plastics Federation, London, says, “The British Plastics Federation is proud to be a part of this project, which will provide great insights into how to influence behavior change and engage more people in plastic recycling. We look forward to being able to share the results to help show the most effective ways to communicate and ultimately drive up recycling rates throughout the UK.”
“We’re delighted to be involved in this project to engage, educate and drive sustainable change in people’s recycling behaviors,” Daniel Costigan, sustainability lead at U.K.-based Ocado Retail, says, “This forms a fundamental part of our being an industry leader in sustainability, helping customers to do the right thing; recycle more and better.”
London-based Viridor Waste Management Ltd. Sustainability Director Tim Rotheray adds, “Viridor knows that most people are committed to doing the right thing and recycling more. As a company which recycles and reprocesses plastic, Viridor is pleased to be part of an initiative that seeks to engage with residents and understand any confusion or barriers which exist. Following up on this research is the key to ensuring residents are armed with the knowledge and the confidence they need. Above all, we want them to understand that their efforts to separate and retain valuable recycling really does make a difference, underpinning the circular economy which is the U.K. ambition.”
“At Veolia, recycling is at the heart of everything we do, and we are proud to support this project which helps make significant steps towards building a circular economy and a greener future,” says David Fitzgerald, general manager for Veolia UK, who is based out of Dover. “This innovative project will provide great insight into influencing behavior change and help increase recycling rates in the areas in which we operate.”
“Plastics Europe welcomes the vision of UKRI in funding this first of a kind research to develop new communication approaches that will catalyze behavior changes helping households maximize both the quantities and qualities of their recyclables,” Adrian Whyle, resource efficiency senior manager at Belgium-based Plastics Europe says. “Using a multistakeholder approach will help identify workable, replicable communication approaches in providing the essential recyclable streams required for the attainment of the UK’s Circular Economy goals.”
Laura Hutchings, projects officer at PPS Recovery Systems Ltd., Peterborough, says, “Good data and robust analysis are key to understanding and improving the resources sector. This includes scheme performance benchmarking and measuring consumer interactions with recycling messages. We are very excited to be involved in this initiative and look forward to bringing our data analysis and industry expertise to the project.”
In 2018, the Ellwood Group, an iron castings manufacturer, began work on an aluminum manufacturing plant in Hubbard, Ohio, targeting the aerospace sector. Then Boeing, one of Ellwood’s biggest customers, halted production on the 737 Max and the pandemic hit.
Because of its lightweight, durability and malleability, aluminum is becoming a highly used metal in consumer goods, electronics and vehicles. According to Statista, an international research and analysis firm, 62.4 million metric tons of aluminum are expected to be consumed in 2021. Use of the metal is projected to grow at an annual compound rate of 2.6 percent through 2029.
Aluminum consumption is expected to grow to 71.14 percent by 2025, according to Statista. A large contributor to this growth is the use of aluminum as frames for electric vehicles.
A company looking to capitalize on aluminum’s growth is the Ellwood Group, an iron castings company based in Ellwood, Pennsylvania. Recently, the company opened a $72 million factory in Hubbard, Ohio, dedicated to processing and manufacturing aluminum for clients in the automotive, aerospace and construction industries.
“We’re always looking to reinvest in our company,” says Patrick Callihan, president of Ellwood Aluminum and Ellwood Engineered Castings. “In the last five years, we invested $500 million back into our company to improve operations and expand our company’s reach.”
Brothers David and Jonathon Evans founded the Ellwood Group in 1910. The company started out by forging iron, which is something it still does. In 1980, the Ellwood Group began expanding its operations with the formation of Ellwood Quality Steels, New Castle, Pennsylvania.
Today, the company employs more than 1,800 people across 10 business units ranging from scrap processing to manufacturing. The organization creates products for several industries, including defense, automotive and locomotive. Some of the products include crankshafts, rolled rings and steel.
The privately owned company is run by Bentraum D. Huffman, who assumed the role of president and CEO in 2019, the Ellwood Group says.
Ellwood Aluminum (EA) is the organization’s newest company. Its plant involves a two-phase expansion project next to Ellwood Engineered Castings in Hubbard. The 120,000-square-foot factory can process between 100 and 120 million pounds of aluminum scrap annually. The second expansion, which is now in the engineering and design phase, will add 180 million pounds of melting capacity, Callihan says.
“This plant was built with the aerospace industry in mind,” he says. “So, we produce a lot of aerospace quality material for planes and rocket ships.”
The factory employs 30 people and hopes to add an additional 20 to improve and maintain operations in its first phase. It also keeps seven metallurgists on staff, including Callihan, to ensure quality.
Running a 12-hour day shift and 12-hour night shift, the factory uses an automated charging car and skimmer designed by RIA Cast House Engineering, a foundry equipment manufacturer based in Fort Wayne, Indiana, to ensure the safety of the workers.
The factory produces a wide range of aluminum products, including 2,000-, 3,000-, 5,000- and 7,000-series aluminum direct from scrap yards nationally. Using aluminum scrap grades that range between 1,000- and 7,000-series, the factory makes aluminum castings from 80 percent scrap and 20 percent primary aluminum.
In 2018, the expansion was approved by Hubbard township, and work began on the project’s first phase in 2019.
During that time, one of the company’s biggest clients, Boeing, halted production of its 737 MAX. The aerospace industry is one of EA’s biggest clients, according to information provided by the company.
On top of that, the pandemic began just before the facility was completed, which delayed production by three months. A saw the company uses to cut the aluminum castings did not arrive at the time of the plant’s opening because it was made by Sermas, a company based in France, and shipping was delayed to halt the spread of COVID-19. This delay forced Ellwood Aluminum to rely on other businesses in the area to cut the aluminum castings to size.
When the saw did arrive, operators had issues putting it together and with troubleshooting those issues because a representative of Sermas did not come to oversee the assembly, Callihan says.
As demand for aerospace aluminum rapidly declined in light of the pandemic and its effect on air travel, demand for different grades of aluminum from different sectors sharply increased. Extrusion companies such as Zarbana Industries in Columbiana, Ohio, were EA’s primary customers during the pandemic because of an increase in over-the-road shipping. Zarbana's extrusions are used to make trailers or and tractors, Callihan says.
While production demand for aerospace aluminum has increased as air travel rebounds from the lows seen during the pandemic, EA still faces some obstacles.
“One of the biggest issues we’re seeing right now is how hard it is to find laborers,” Callihan says. “We have 30 skilled workers, and that’s still below where I would like this plant to be operating. It’s hard right now to find workers, though.”
Callihan says proposed policies such as the Green New Deal also concern him. This is because he's unsure of the impact it would have on his industry and what changes would need to be made.
While the company works on staffing its factory, Callihan says operations continue to expand. The factory’s second phase includes adding a second furnace and casting equipment to more than double production.
Callihan says Ellwood Aluminum also is looking into developing new partnerships in the various industries it serves. He says the company is looking into developing aluminum sheeting for the automotive industry as electric vehicle production expands. Right now, it is unclear what companies EA will partner with, Callihan says.
EA also is looking into developing new alloys for aluminum to improve material quality for its clients.
“We’re an engineer-driven company,” Callihan says. “We pride ourselves in investing in new equipment that gives us the edge over our competitors.”
The partnership will yield resources for waste and recycling companies to help reduce injuries and fatalities.
The board of trustees of the Arlington, Virginia-based National Waste & Recycling Association (NWRA) has approved what it calls a “significant financial commitment” to form a partnership with the Chicago-based National Safety Council (NSC) to better understand the safety needs of the waste and recycling industry and develop resources aimed at making the industry safer.
“Meaningful progress in injury and fatality rates in the waste and recycling industry have remained elusive. NWRA is committed to safety in the industry, and we are making a major move with this partnership,” NWRA President and CEO Darrell Smith says. “NSC has been a leader in workplace safety for more than a century. This partnership will help us find new and innovative ways to reduce injuries and fatalities. After an initial assessment of the industry, the program will focus on the development of world-class outreach and educational products that are desperately needed in the industry.”
All NSC safety products will be provided for free to any party in the industry including large and small companies and private and public entities, regardless of NWRA membership status, the association says.
“This partnership will enable us to better understand the unique safety challenges both large and small organizations face within the waste and recycling industry so we can bring forth tangible solutions to combat common risks workers face every day,” Lorraine Martin, NSC president and CEO, says. “Everyone deserves to go home safely at the end of their shift, and we commend the NWRA for taking this important step to make the industry safer."