| Recycling breaks safety rules
Boxes used for recycling are so heavy they
could injure anyone trying to lift them - potentially triggering
thousands of court claims.
When filled with a mixture of glass and paper,
the containers, used by millions of households across Britain,
exceed the recommended weight limit.
Councils face the prospect of being sued
by people trying to move the boxes, according to a three-month
study for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
"Local authorities are concerned. The
HSE carries a lot of weight in courts and tribunals,"
said Lee Marshall, the chairman of the Local Authority Recycling
Advisory Committees.
The most widely-used recycling box, a 55
litre capacity model, weighs 22.1kg when filled with a 50-50
mix of glass and paper. This exceeds a widely accepted limit
for back strain set by America's National Institute of Occupational
Safety and Health.
The new study, by the Health and Safety Laboratory,
calls for the size of boxes to be limited to 40 litres.
Dr Andrew Pinder, who led the project, said:
"We found problems in all the areas in the country we
looked at."
Eight out of 10 Britons will suffer from
back problems at some point during their lives, and back injuries
are estimated to cost industry £5 billion annually and
the National Health Service £481 million a year.
Last year, 800 waste sector workers from
the GMB union lodged personal injury claims for back or upper
limb injuries. They received compensation pay-outs totalling
£17 million.
The GMB spokesman Justin Bowden said: "It's
only a matter of time before a council taxpayer bring a claim
against his local authority for back injuries incurred while
putting their recycling out."
To combat the problem, a new generation of
wheelie bins is in development, with shelves for different
recyclable items. Another idea is to "retro-fit"
boxes with false bottoms, reducing their capacity.
But Jonathan Straight, chief executive of
Straight plc, Britain's largest manufacturer of recycling
boxes, criticised the report.
"I just cannot imagine why the HSE has
looked into this rather than things that are actually dangerous,"
he said.
His firm has produced 10 million of Britain's
estimated 13 million recycling boxes, the majority of which
are of the 55 litre variety.
Of the 28.5 million tons of household waste
produced each year, 23 per cent is recycled.
source: The
Telegraph (Last Updated: Monday, 24th July, 2006)
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