Waste paper company fined £250,000

A London waste paper company has been sentenced fined £250,000 and ordered to pay costs of £6,639.77 and a victim surcharge of £170 after an employee was found dead, having suffered fatal crush injuries, inside the compaction chamber of a baling machine. An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) into the incident, which occurred on 27 March 2017, found the worker had fallen down the loading hopper into the compaction chamber of a baling machine. It is thought that he had been attempting to clear a blockage and that his fall into the chamber initiated the compaction sequence. Climbing up a baler to clear machine blockages exposes workers to the risk of falling a significant distance either into the compaction chamber or the surrounding concrete floor.