Health scare at recycling plant
July 2005

Councillor Peter O'Connell

A warehouse, processing all the recycling waste from Lambeth, is feared to be a health hazard to its exclusively black workers.

Councillors were on a fact-finding visit to the Cleanaway depot, which operates 24 hours a day in Woolwich.

They were shocked to discover, in the dust-filled conditions, that there was no compulsion for plant workers to wear protective face masks. Most of the recyclable material was paper. Newsprint dust filled the air like a cloud, and was seen in a layer over everything.

Within a minute of entering the massive recycling shed, the taste of dust could be felt in the throat for anyone without a filter mask over the nose and mouth. Conditions in the plant worsened in the extreme heat.

Councillor Liz Atkinson was horrified. Cllr. Peter O’Connell, opposition Labour spokesman against Lambeth crime, said:

“While the Cleanaway office employees enjoyed air-conditioned comfort outside the recycling cabin, the exclusively black workers who were inside endured conditions so terrible I would not choose to work there.

“Every visitor felt the back of his or her throat clogging up in just a few minutes. I feel ashamed that, in processing Lambeth household waste for recycling, 40 workers every shift are suffering from a hazard that may lead to long-term respiratory problems.

“I urge the council’s Conservative Executive Member for Environment, Cllr. Clare Whelan, to investigate the shameful apartheid conditions of hundreds of black workers, who process Lambeth’s recyclables. This practice must stop.”

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