Safety yields positive shredding outcomes

Taking a proactive approach to safety and the benefits of that approach was a common theme discussed at the Shredder Committee meeting of the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR), when it met in Amsterdam this May.

The Brussels-based BIR includes national associations, companies and people drawn from about 70 nations, including the preponderance of those that have powerful auto shredding plants in operation.

During the May committee meeting, BIR Deputy Director for Trade and Environment Alev Somer said BIR’s shredder safety surveys were intended to boost overall safety by enabling operators to benchmark their own performance against other sites.

The shredder safety survey effort has its origins in a program undertaken by United States-based scrap recycling firm the David J. Joseph Co., a subsidiary of steelmaker Nucor Corp.

Chris Bedell of DJJ made a presentation at a 2018 BIR event summarizing findings from his company’s safety survey of the 17 shredding plants it operated at that time.

The recently prepared BIR documents could prove extremely useful not only in identifying scope to avoid accidents and injuries but also in safety briefings, according to Somer.

Somer said critical takeaways from the world recycling organization’s most recent safety survey confirm conveyors and material pile unloading areas are common locations for accidents and injuries.

Those findings partially jibe with what Bedell and DJJ found in the previous decade, when the American recycler told delegates many of the maintenance tasks that caused injuries involved conveyor repair and cleaning, while production mishaps were most likely to occur during the downstream picking process.

At the same May meeting, the role of good planning and preparation in limiting safety risks was stressed by George Adams of California-based SA Recycling.

Adams’ presentation focused on minimizing and managing fires caused by lithium-ion batteries increasingly being introduced to stockpiles and feedstock of auto shredding plants.

Fires were inevitable, he contended, but their impact could be mitigated by shredding or shipping to the ground every day or by maintaining suitable gaps between multiple but smaller piles.

Readily available sources of water and fire-fighting equipment, the development of a fire prevention plan and frequent fire drills also were highly recommended by Adams.

The scrutiny and negative press following a fire is “way more expensive” than the cost of establishing an appropriate fire management regime, Adams told BIR delegates.

Attention to safety at shredder yards will remain important to recyclers in the near term, with Shredder Committee chair Alton Scott Newell III of U.S.-based Newell Recycling Equipment reporting in May on the continuing growth of the global shredder population.

Although the changing composition of passenger vehicles is poised to reshape shredder feedstock 10 or more years in the future, Newell characterized the current shredder growth as confirmation of their global status as “an effective way to reduce CO₂ emissions.”

The global shredding plant population has grown to 1,181 on the BIR's latest list, with 334 located in the U.S., 257 in the European Union/European Free Trade Association region and 590 throughout the rest of the world, including 340 in China and 110 in Japan.

What happens both downstream and upstream of the shredding process was the focus of two other presentations at the Shredder Committee meeting.

On the downstream side, Howard Bluck, technical director of the British Metals Recycling Association, informed delegates about his organization’s testing of metal shredder residues after the United Kingdom’s Environment Agency confirmed its intention to review a 2005 position designating the material as nonhazardous.

The loss of this nonhazardous status would raise major concerns over availability of appropriate landfill capacity and would lead to higher costs, according to Bluck.

A presentation from Sebastian Raubinger of Austria-based equipment provider SEDA Group portrayed end-of-life vehicle recycling technologies and stations used by the auto dismantlers who commonly provide feedstock to shredding plant operators.

On the safety front, Raubinger said his company conducted workflow and risk assessment analyses for electric vehicle recycling centers, including how to deal with emergencies such as fires. Among the company’s product offerings is a “security blanket” that can be used when transporting damaged EVs.