In UNTHA UK’s February poll, we asked participants ‘What do you think is the main benefit of low noise levels in a shredder?’ As is often the case with our quick-fire surveys, there was a clear favourite. The protection of operator wellbeing came out top with 70% of the votes – a clear indication that duty of care to employees is high on the radar. And so it should be. The number of decibels that a plant operates at could have a detrimental impact on workers’ health. So, whilst hearing protection can of course be worn, why not strive to design plants that operate below the first dB(A) action point? If average exposure levels are 85 decibels, hearing protection is mandatory; at 80 decibels it must be made available; but below that it isn’t required. Not only do low noise shredders therefore preserve the hearing quality of on-site operatives, they enable money to be saved on ear defenders too! Interestingly however, controlling costs didn’t pick up any votes in the poll – the cost of ear protection probably doesn’t sound like too much, but it soon adds up. Linked closely to operator wellbeing is the risk of claims liability, which only received 10% of the votes. Noise is rumoured to be the ‘next big thing’ for the UK’s ‘no win, no fee’ legal specialists to get their teeth into. It’s perhaps no surprise, given the debilitating and incurable effect that continued exposure to noise can have on operatives’ hearing. Longer operating hours also picked up 10% of the votes, as did the reduction of community complaints. To a certain degree these two points go hand in hand. A quiet shredder will result in minimal disruption to neighbouring stakeholders, which keeps local businesses and residents much happier. This can also enable a plant to run earlier in the morning and later in an evening, which results in greater uptime, throughputs and profits for the organisation concerned. For much the same reason, a quiet shredder could also help gain necessary planning permission for a recycling, waste management or alternative fuel production plant. Interestingly however, this was not flagged as a main benefit for poll participants. Commenting on the research, UNTHA UK’s chairman Chris Oldfield said: “Usually, low noise shredders need to operate at a slow speed, which some organisations would perceive as being detrimental to performance. However, if the design is right, capacity won’t be affected. In fact we’ve engineered our shredders to achieve low noise levels at the same time as impressive operational stats, as is demonstrated with our new XR waste shredder and the XR mobil-e. “Noise hasn’t ever really been a priority in the waste and recycling sector, but this has to change.”