UNITED STATES
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Abstract: At approximately 4:30 a.m. on February 13, 2022, an employee operated the "Shred der" line in the "Reclaim Building" with two other coworkers. The "Shredder" is comprised of a conveyor system, a "sorting belt" and an inclined "Titan conveyo r", that transports recycled plastic components to the "Republic" Shredder. Nor mal operation of the "Shredder" line requires approximately three employees; one employee is tasked with operating the "butterfly" forklift to transport cardboa rd boxes of recycled plastic components (boxes weigh approximately 800-1,200lbs) onto the "sorting belt" where two machine operators are stationed on opposite s ides of the line ("control side" and "box side") where they are required to manu ally sort the recycled plastic components to remove contaminants as the componen ts transfer from the "sorting belt" to the inclined "Titan Conveyor" into the "R epublic Shredder". Machine operators manually sort the components while the "Ti tan conveyor" operates. The employee was attempting to dislodge a plastic "disc" (approximately 15" diameter and 3" thick) that became lodged between the in-run ning nip points at the outfeed side (bottom belt) of the "sorting conveyor" and the infeed side of the "Titan conveyor" when the middle finger of their left han d became caught between a cleat of the "Titan conveyor" and the material that wa s lodged at the in-running points of the conveyor system. Employee #1 received o pen fracture injuries to the middle finger of the left hand, ultimately resultin g in partial amputation of bone in the finger. The employee was hospitalized to treat these injuries.