Violence against Hertfordshire recycling center staff continues

Recycling centers in Hertfordshire continue to experience violence against staff while investigations are carried out to find out why the attacks took place, the county council said.

The official said that although the number of cases dropped from 50 to 30 last year, “unacceptable levels of harassment and aggression towards facility staff” continued.

All facilities received body-worn video cameras and staff received customer service training to stop violence.

A report by Andrew McGinn, the recycling centres’ team leader, said work was continuing with the council’s behavior change unit to “identify the cause of incidents of abuse and implement strategies to address them”.

“Abusive or threatening behavior or harassment towards our staff is unacceptable and HCC (Hertfordshire County Council) will always pursue police investigations wherever possible and push for the strongest penalties against offenders,” he said.

The report praised the use of body cameras on staff as a deterrent to aggressive behavior and had been “successfully used to combat complaints from site users”.

He said road workers in the area are also sharing best practices for combating abusive behavior.