A routine visit by two inspectors from the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) found that Plasterboard Recycling Solutions was both dusty and dangerous.
There were no measures on site to prevent pedestrians from coming into contact with moving vehicles, machinery on site was inadequately guarded and unsupported plasterboard stockpiles were leaning against buildings.
The buildings on site were also in a sorry state – one of the walls of the process building was bowing and the internal roof trusses were bent and damaged.
Plasterboard dust was covering the floors, walls, machinery and ledges of the premises. Subsequent occupational hygiene surveys carried out after the inspection identified exposures to dust on the premises were up to 20 times the legal limit.
Plasterboard Recycling Solutions Ltd of Floor Bridge House, Fiddlebridge Lane, Hatfield, pleaded guilty of breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and Regulations 6(1) and 7(1) of the Control of Substances hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (as amended). It was fined £60,000 at Luton Magistrates’ Court and ordered to pay costs of £2,327.60.
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