ABC Disposal Repairs Large Metal Refuse Bins to Meet Federal Safety Standards
ABC Disposal repaired seven large, unstable metal refuse bins in Florida to comply with federal safety standards after they failed tip-over tests.
What this means for you
Highest-severity recall. Risk of serious injury or death is documented or strongly suspected. Stop using the product now and follow the agency's instructions.
Our severity reasoning: The source text explicitly reports that 13 children had died prior to the 1977 ban and 16 more deaths occurred since, meeting the rubric criterion for known fatalities.
Plain-English summary
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) announced that ABC Disposal, a commercial refuse hauler in Port Richey, Florida, has brought seven large, unstable slant-sided metal refuse bins into compliance with federal safety standards. The bins were identified by CPSC investigators in Atlanta and Orlando as failing the federal safety standard, which bans metal bins with a volume of more than one cubic yard if they tip over during testing.
The federal ban was issued in 1977 to address the risk of tip-over, which has historically crushed children climbing or hanging on the bins. The CPSC test simulates these activities by requiring bins to sustain a horizontal force of 70 pounds and a vertical force of 191 pounds. Since the ban, the Commission has investigated 41 additional incidents of refuse bin tip-over involving 41 victims, 39 of whom were children younger than age ten, resulting in 16 deaths.
As part of a written agreement with the CPSC, ABC Disposal was given fourteen days to repair or remove the seven remaining unstable bins from public areas. The company completed the repairs in mid-November 1985 by welding extensions to the bins to prevent them from tipping over.
The recalled product
- Product
- ABC Disposal large slant-sided metal refuse bins
- Manufacturer
- ABC Disposal
- Category
- Consumer Product — Refuse Bins
- Hazard
Distribution
Distributed nationwide across the United States.
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