TALES FROM PAD

A joint publication from

Sims Metal Management

and

KESAB environmental solutions

Issue Number 1 September 2011

Tales from the PAD

Talesfromthepad THE HIDDEN DANGER

The very first thing that happens when you enter a Sims Metal Management yard is that you are welcomed at the weighbridge, weighed and asked to disclose the contents of your load. After being directed to the disposal location, you will find some friendly inspectors who will take a careful look over your load.

These guys are there for a very good reason – they need to make sure we don’t end up with materials that are unsafe to process. Gas bottles containing gas and asbestos contained within tanks are two good examples. Items like these are potentially hazardous to our people and to the environment if they're not identified.

One real problem we regularly face is customers hiding these types of items within the contents of their load. You might not appreciate just how difficult it can be to ferret out these dangerous items, but in a year where we can process between 150,000 and 200,000 tonnes of scrap metal across our SA&NT business, it can be like ‘finding a needle in a haystack’.

Whilst every one of our yards is sign posted and we constantly try to educate people delivering scrap metal to our sites, we face a never ending battle to find these nasties.

It's important for all of us, customers and staff included, to understand that these hazardous items are prohibited for good reason, and we are not the dumping ground at the end of the waste/recycling line.

If you are involved in delivering scrap metal to a recycler like SMM, then please get to know what items cannot be recycled and ensure that the proper disposal methods are used. In the end the best possible recycling outcome is one that is done safely.

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