A recycling company whose website boasts of doing good for the environment failed to protect its workers from hazardous machinery, resulting in one losing four fingers.

Marglen Industries Inc. in Rome, Ga. has been cited by OSHA for one willful and one serious safety violation after a worker had four fingers amputated while servicing a dust collector's airlock system at the company's facility in Rome. The agency  initiated an inspection in response to the incident under the agency's National Emphasis Program on Amputations.

The willful violation involves allowing employees to perform service and maintenance on the dust collector's airlock system without developing, documenting and using a specific lockout/tagout procedure for de-energizing the system.

The serious violation involves failing to train workers as required by the company's lockout/tagout program to ensure that they are able to recognize hazardous energy sources, the type and magnitude of the energy available in the workplace, and the methods necessary for isolating energy.

"Although the company has a lockout/tagout program, it was not implemented for this machine, resulting in serious injury to a worker," said Andre Richards, director of OSHA's Atlanta-West Area Office.

Marglen Industries recycles plastic bottles into carpet or food-grade packaging. Proposed penalties total $69,300.