Someone Has to Sort Your Recycling and It’s a Disgusting and Dangerous Job | The Nation

The industries that pride themselves on being friends of the earth are often hostile to workers, according to new research on the safety conditions in recycling plants. Published by Massachusetts Council for Occupational Safety and Health (MassCOSH), National COSH, and other advocacy groups, the analysis of the industry shows that despite the green sector’s clean, progressive image, workers remain imperiled by old-school industrial hazards. Workers face intense stress, dangerous machinery and inadequate safeguards, while toiling in strenuous positions amid constant toxic exposures.

Often the sorting of recyclables requires directly handling hazardous materials and improperly disposed waste, such as plastic bags that accumulate and cause potentially deadly clogs in machines. Some cities allow dumping of “mixed” trash, leaving workers to separate metal cans from organic waste, or battery fluid from old meatloaf (cities could prevent such dangers through the slight inconvenience of simply requiring people to separate garbage beforehand).
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Just as sanitation workers have historically suffered both extreme labor abuses and job hazards, recycling workers’ physical insecurity is aggravated by economic vulnerability, as workplaces often lack labor protections and adequate staffing. One worker told researchers, “When I started working a sorter over 10 years ago, they had eight people on a sorting line, now there are only four, but the company expects us to work as if there are eight people on the line.” Some workers have reported “constant pressure from supervisors to work fast so as to not get fired.”

Someone Has to Sort Your Recycling and It’s a Disgusting and Dangerous Job | The Nation

North Dakota Is the Deadliest State to Work In | Mother Jones

"North Dakota, clearly by the data, has much more significant problems and issues" than other oil-producing states, AFL-CIO Director of Safety and Health Peg Seminario said. "The industry is more established in other states; in North Dakota this is a relatively recent phenomenon."

Seminario said the bad record can be attributed to the large number of workers coming into the industry who are relatively inexperienced and untrained, as well as the fact that many oil and gas companies in the state are startups that may not have rigorous safety standards in place. At the same time, Seminario said, on-the-ground inspection by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration has suffered from budget cuts.

As we've reported in the past, one of the most dangerous places to work in a fracking boom isn't on the rig itself, but behind the wheel of one of the thousands of trucks needed to transport fresh and waste water, chemicals, and oil. Of North Dakota's 65 workplace fatalities in all industries in 2012, 40 were classified as transportation-related; the proportion was similar on the national level. Exposure to dangerous chemicals is also a problem; just last week a 20-year-old man was killed on a North Dakota oil well site, possibly by exposure to toxic hydrogen sulfide gas, according to the local sheriff's department. Silica dust, a toxic byproduct of fracking operations, is often found at unsafe concentrations at well sites, and remains unregulated by OSHA despite being linked to a number of fatal diseases. Indeed, the most serious long-term health impacts of fracking operations are just beginning to be studied, and some health experts are worried that incidents of industry-related disease could increase in coming decades.

"This is going to be a sector that continues to grow, and it's so dangerous," Seminario said. "Much more oversight is needed."

North Dakota Is the Deadliest State to Work In | Mother Jones