A joint investigation by the HSE and the Environment Agency found that the company had failed to ensure the health and safety of its employees and others nearby. The company had kept and treated waste in a manner likely to cause pollution to the environment.
The company has also been ordered to pay £229,988 in costs.
The injuries were caused by a metal tank which exploded and shot into the air at the company’s anaerobic digestion (AD) plant on 20 September 2017.
The two employees were using a grinder to cut and replace pipework at the top of an 11-metre-high metal tank containing waste slurry. They were not wearing harnesses. A spark from the grinder ignited the flammable gases within the tank.
The investigation found that the explosion was caused by multiple failures in the company’s management system and exacerbated by multiple breaches of the company’s environmental permit.
Both employees were thrown into the air, with one of them falling on the ground below. He suffered serious injuries to his back, head and torso alongside pre- and post-traumatic amnesia.
In a statement, he discussed the psychological damage from the incident: “After the accident, I was unable to recover emotionally.
“I did not realise what had happened and was in deep shock. I could not cope with the pain. I could not accept an accident had happened to me.”
The second employee required a leg amputation and remains wheelchair bound as treatment is still ongoing to receive a prosthesis. His skull was fractured, and a piece of metal was embedded in his elbow.
He said: “This whole situation is having a huge impact on my relationship. I can’t help my wife in anything like I used to be able to. Magda is both wife and husband because all my responsibilities fell on her; along with the kids.
“Also, my personality is explosive. I lose my patience very quickly. I attended appointments with a psychologist because I had nightmares that I was still having this accident.”
After the hearing at Nottingham crown court on 22 November 2024 concluded, HSE inspector Richenda Dixon said: “It’s remarkable that Robert and Tomasz weren’t killed.
“This incident resulted from fundamental and multiple failings by the company to properly manage its health and safety risks.
“These included failing to ensure that the design, installation and use of the tanks were safe; failing to carry out risk assessments; failing to put in place a safe system of work; and failing to train and supervise employees.”
‘Lengthy and technically complex investigation’
Senior environmental crime officer Iain Regan said: “This was a lengthy and technically complex investigation by the Environment Agency and the HSE during which we found that the company’s attitude towards environmental compliance was largely cosmetic. Although the site had an environmental permit, the company was not complying with the conditions of the permit or with their own management system and procedures.
“The site had unauthorised gaseous emissions points and undertook modifications to their process which were not risk assessed or notified to the Environment Agency. The company did not recognise or understand the impact that these changes had on the safety of the plant and failed to take action, when warned, which could have prevented the incident. These factors, and a failure to implement permit to work procedures, including appropriate risk assessment, created all the necessary conditions on 20 September 2017 for the explosion which occurred.
“Sites which receive, treat or dispose of waste must be permitted to ensure that they minimise the risk to the environment or human health. Incidents such as the explosion at Bio Dynamic show why it is essential that such sites strictly comply with all the conditions of their environmental permit and take their environmental responsibilities seriously. The consequences of the company’s failure to comply with its environmental permit could have been fatal. As it is, two employees have been left with life changing physical and mental injuries which continue to devastate their lives seven years on from this incident.”
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