How Attero Closed the Safety Gap Between Operations and Office

Attero is a major Dutch waste processing company with more than 90 years in the market. Its 21 operational sites convert waste into energy and raw materials, employing over 800 workers and processing 3.5 million tonnes of waste a year. Several of these sites handle materials and processes that fall under major-hazard regulation, which makes incident reporting a matter of regulatory record, not just internal housekeeping.

A safety challenge that comes with the industry

Waste processing carries risks that are specific to the material itself. Gas formation in waste is a known fire risk, and a fire at a processing site is a serious health hazard both for employees on site and for neighboring facilities. Attero had long understood the need for a reliable way to report incidents like this fast, and had built an in-house solution called the Incident Reporting System, or IRS.

The IRS worked, largely because Attero already had a strong internal safety culture behind it. But it had a structural limitation that no amount of good intentions could fix.

The gap between the office and the field

The IRS ran on desktop computers only. Most of Attero's personnel worked out on site, which meant the system was never actually available where incidents happened. When something occurred, workers had to walk back to the office to log it.

That delay cost more than time. Management ended up with data that was incomplete and sometimes inaccurate, because details that felt obvious in the moment were forgotten by the time someone sat down to write the report. There was a real gap between what was happening on site and what was actually getting recorded.

Attero needed in-depth, reliable data on workplace incidents, and the existing system simply couldn't deliver it. Workers couldn't use it on the go, and there was no straightforward way to attach photos or documents to a report.

Looking for a mobile incident reporting system

Attero's safety leaders started evaluating platforms that could close that gap: something mobile, that let workers report incidents anywhere, anytime, and that pushed updates to the office immediately instead of hours later.

After testing several options, Attero chose Capptions. What stood out first was the mobile app itself. Workers could report an incident the moment it happened, and the reporting process was simple enough that anyone could complete it from their own smartphone, on the spot. That made Capptions a genuinely effective tool for digital incident reporting, and it gave Attero the foundation for a real-time EHS workflow with no gap between field and office.

Building Attero's IRS 2.0

Rebranding. Workers already knew and trusted the internal IRS name. To make the transition smooth, Attero rebranded the Capptions app to match the IRS logo and colors. The familiarity paid off: most workers adopted the new app quickly. Today, over 1,000 Attero employees and contractors use this customized version of Capptions.

Advanced reporting for incoming waste. Attero also needed a better way to check incoming waste trucks, most of which belong to partner companies delivering waste to its sorting sites. On arrival, every load had to be checked and either accepted or rejected, and on the old desktop system that check couldn't be completed on the spot, it had to wait until someone got back to a computer. Capptions built an advanced reporting module for Attero that let workers complete these checks on the go, attaching photo, GPS location, time, priority, and description directly to the report. A custom "sorting area" field was added on top of Capptions' standard reporting fields, so Attero could break reports down by location and quickly see which sites had the most incidents and why.

More data, faster reporting

With Capptions in place, Attero's safety leaders finally got the real-time insight they needed. The data-gathering process is streamlined, and the EHS department can keep a genuine finger on the pulse of health and safety across all 21 sites. Reporting happens faster, saving hours every month, and the data itself is more complete than what the desktop-only system could ever capture.

Where this leaves Attero

Attero's mandate is to process, recycle, and reuse waste efficiently while keeping the surrounding environment safe, a responsibility that carries real weight at sites where major-hazard risks like gas formation and fire are a constant operational factor. With a connected workforce reporting from the field in real time, Attero now runs a digital EHS process that matches the seriousness of that responsibility, instead of one that depended on people remembering details after the fact.