An investigation conducted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety, has determined that ASM Metal Recycling failed to implement effective control measures to protect workers. During a routine inspection, an HSE investigator observed dangerous working practices. These practices included failing to segregate moving vehicles from pedestrians as waste was being manually sorted. The investigator gathered video evidence of workers hand-sorting waste with three 360 grab excavators operating behind them. In the footage, an HGV skip lorry pulls forwards and reverses towards and past them. There are no barriers or other measures to prevent reversing vehicles from coming into contact with the workers. 

ASM Metal Recycling was aware of the potential risk of pedestrian-vehicle collision but chose not to implement effective control measures to prevent this. ASM Metal Recycling Ltd, of 55 Station Road Beaconsfield Buckinghamshire HP9 1QL, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc 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. 

What people are saying

In a recent quote, HSE inspector Emma Page said, “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, with nearly half of these relating 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’s Griffin Lane premises in Aylesbury, 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.” 

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