Recycling company fined £400,000 after woman, 22, crushed by shredder

An Essex recycling company has been fined £400,000 after a woman was crushed by a mobile shredder.

Clearaway Recycling Limited was sentenced after a 22-year-old site operative was crushed by the moving vehicle while accessing the tipping yard in October 2023.

The woman suffered life-threatening injuries when she was trapped between a gate post and the shredder itself.

As a result of the incident, she has suffered life changing injuries.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found the company had not managed the movement of pedestrians and vehicles at the site.

It had become custom and practice for pedestrians to walk in areas close to moving vehicles, including the shredder, as well as close to lorries and forklift trucks.

Clearaway Recycling Limited of Archers Fields, Basildon, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

The company was fined £400,000 and ordered to pay costs of £10,259 at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court on August 13, 2026.

HSE inspector Joanne Williams said: "The waste and recycling sector continues to be one of the leading industries for workplace injuries and fatalities.

"One of the reasons is the risks from vehicle and pedestrian collisions are well known, yet serious incidents continue to occur.

"In this case, a young woman was left with significant and life-changing injuries.

"Where pedestrians require access to working areas, safeguards must be in place to protect them, including providing adequate segregation or separation distances between pedestrians and vehicles in the area."

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The latest figures from the HSE shows the waste and recycling industry saw six workers killed between 2025/2024 which when compared over a five-year period, means fatalities are ten times as likely compared to the all-industry average.

However, the industries with the highest number of deaths continue to be construction and agriculture, forestry and fishing.

The most common cause of fatal injuries continues to be falls from a height, representing around a quarter of worker deaths in 2025/26.

Workers aged 60 and over accounted for around a third of all fatalities during the year despite that age group accounting for just 12 per cent of the workforce, said the HSE.

However, HSE research showed a fall in the number of fatalities caused by work-related incidents after new analysis comparing the level and trend of fatal injuries to workers in Britain with a selection of 35 other countries.

The number was 126 in the past year, which was provisionally the lowest recorded in a single year, excluding the years affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

The latest figure compares with 217 fatalities 20 years ago and 495 in 1981.

HSE’s chief executive Sarah Albon said: "Every one of these numbers represents a loved one lost; serving as a powerful reminder of the importance of the work we do.

"We can be proud that Great Britain remains one of the safest places in the world to work, and the new analysis we have developed this year, for the first time, allows us to compare our safety record with a wide range of other advanced economies."