The company, which is one of Northern Irelands largest composting firms, pleaded guilty to breaching health and safety at work legislation and was fined following a hearing at Newry Crown Court on Friday (October 7).
The case arose following an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland (HSENI) into a serious incident at Natural World Products Keady composting operation on June 29 2010.
An unnamed 20-year old employee became trapped after coming into contact with an unguarded rotating conveyor drum on a screening machine. Because of the serious injuries he sustained, his left arm had to be amputated.
The HSENI investigation revealed that the original guard on the machine had been made smaller so that maintenance staff could have access to the internal working of the machine while it was still running.
After the hearing Mr Kevin Campbell, an inspector with HSENIs Major Investigation Team said It is essential that companies identify and address hazards within the workplace.
Measures must be taken to control and limit access to dangerous moving parts of machines. Companies must ensure that maintenance teams are trained in identifying missing or defective guards and the importance of replacing guards that are removed during maintenance operations.
Natural World Products
A spokesman for Natural World Products was unavailable for comment at time of publication.
The company currently operates from three sites in Northern Ireland with composting and WEEE operations at the Keady site, a waste transfer operation at its Portadown site and an in-vessel composting facility at Glenside in West Belfast. The latter was dubbed the largest of its kind in Northern Ireland when it opened in November 2009 (see letsrecycle.com story).
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