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The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has called on recycling firms to reconsider the methods they use for collecting glass to limit employee exposure to noise.

The guidance, written in consultation Waste Industry Safety and Health Forum (WISH), suggests that employers should choose methods of collecting glass that do not require the glass to be manually tipped or sorted at the kerbside because they remove a significant source of noise.

It said field studies suggest that glass-only collection can result in significantly higher noise exposure than co-mingled and kerbside-sorted collections.

The guidance also suggested slowing the speed with which glass is deposited in collection vehicles and limiting the number of glass collections performed by individual operatives.

The report's findings have been criticised by British Glass. Director general David Workman has written to the HSE to express the industry's "disappointment" about the lack of consultation on the issue, recommending "some sort of hearing protection" for recycling operators.
 
"If this does become an issue you can wave goodbye to glass recycling, indeed most packaging materials. As it is we're battling to get more glass, and it's got to be closed loop, single stream collection. If we co-mingle, it reduces our ability to make the most of glass," he told Packaging News.

The Campaign for Real Recycling (CRR) added that collecting glass in commingled collections could damage the quality of glass being reprocessed.

Mal Williams, CRR chair and community sector representative on the WISH committee, said: "We're prepared to believe that glass noise can be a problem in certain circumstances. Recent modifications to stillage vehicles, prompted by HSE research findings, have improved the situation.

"But, to suggest that commingled collection is the answer is absurd. We suspect this conclusion about noise is simply an excuse to mitigate the practice of commingling as it costs and quality disbenefits become clearer," he added.

The full HSE guidance document can be viewed here.