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News | June 17, 2024

With Safety Top of Mind, Battery Recyclers Value Cooperation Over Competition

Illustration of a globe and circles showing employee health and safety images in the lead battery recycling industry.

North American lead battery recyclers collaborate regularly, sharing best practices, insights and innovations to continually enhance worker safety. It’s part of an intentional industry culture that values cooperation over competition to solve shared challenges.

The Association of Battery Recyclers (ABR) fosters this collaborative mindset by providing opportunities for member companies to share their knowledge of environmental and safety policies and controls to protect the health and safety of employees, contractors and communities.

Recently, representatives from ABR member companies convened at the organization’s annual spring meeting to share best practices and insights gained as the industry works continuously to improve employee health and safety.

The meeting featured a panel discussion on worker safety with panelists from member recycling companies presenting on lessons learned in their own operations and participating in a lively and informative Q&A with the audience.

Create a Culture of Safety

Jordan Geist of East Penn Manufacturing gave a presentation on the importance of creating a culture for safety, especially within his oversight of the company’s Metals Division. . By embracing the approach “we are all in this together” and leveraging industry partnerships for ideas and best practices, battery recyclers can build a proactive safety culture.

To achieve a culture of safety, companies have developed comprehensive safety training programs that condition new employees to follow safety protocols and reinforce best practices with existing employees. A successful proactive safety culture will focus on individual responsibility and hazard risk assessment. Establishing a strong safety committee to serve as an “army of problem solvers” helps drive action and engagement with all employees.

By implementing an even greater focus on their culture of safety, East Penn found employees were more engaged, aware and consistent across various aspects of their daily routines. As a result, the company saw:

  • 85% retention of trained employees
  • Overall reduction in injury rate by 60% over the last 12 months
  • Even better results from protection strategies against potential exposures
Lead battery recycler employee washing her hands for good worker hygiene.

Focus on Hygiene

In his presentation, A.J. Williams of Ecobat emphasized the importance of worker hygiene as a key component to keep employees safe and reiterated the need to make it part of a larger culture of health and safety. While acknowledging there are challenges, he underscored the importance of strong mentoring and training in making hygiene second nature company-wide.

Williams recommended a variety of best practices and lessons learned that helped Ecobat improve its own health and safety results, including:

  • Making good hygiene easier for employees by improving flow using LEAN manufacturing practices
  • Implementing supplementary deep cleaning of common areas (break room, locker room, etc.) by a third party
  • Establishing internal audit teams and utilizing third-party audits, including conducting root cause analysis.
  • Focusing on job risk assessment for non-routine activities — don’t just focus on routine activities, it’s the tasks that aren’t done very often where issues arise because without established procedures or a Job Risk Assessment, safety best practices are not always followed
  • Ensuring temporary fixes don’t become permanent fixes
Training room with woman training employees on lead battery recycling safety.

Invest in Worker Safety Initiatives

ABR member companies make substantial, ongoing investments to ensure their operations meet and exceed the highest environmental, health and safety regulatory standards in the industry.

Throughout the presentations and panel discussions with the audience that followed, several common themes emerged that indicate worker safety continues to be a top priority for the industry.

Companies and workers both continue to value transparency and education as keys to effective health and safety initiatives. There needs to be investment by both for the initiatives to be successful. It is also clear that leaders and supervisors must lead by example.

Many companies are finding value in using multifaceted training approaches that incorporate in-person training in a classroom with a combination of apps and videos. Using more pictorial materials and conducting hands-on training where the work happens is also proving to be extremely effective.

One common theme that emerged was the importance of including contractors, not only in health and safety training but also in audits of these programs to ensure they are effective.

As an industry that plays a vital role in ensuring the environmental, health and safety of our communities, our businesses are invested in ensuring the success of these initiatives.

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