Recycling: Crushing Hazards

Recycling facilities have a number of objects that are potential hazards that could crush workers, including forklifts, compacting and baling machines, hydraulic doors, and stacks or piles of materials. Many injuries and fatalities occurred when co-workers were unaware that another worker was in a baling machine, or when workers were attempting to clear a jam in a machine and the machine became energized.

Hazards

• Forklifts

• Machinery – Moving Parts

• Unexpected Machine Startup

• Make sure that stacks of pallets and recyclable materials are arranged in such a manner that they will not topple over and crush workers (for example, as a rule of thumb, the height of a stack of materials should be no higher than three times the minimum base dimension). See 29 CFR 1910.176(b) for more information.