The Client

AP Taylor Ltd, based in Houghton Regis, Dunstable, in Bedfordshire, is a fully Approved Authorised Treatment Facility (AATF) accredited reverse logistics company. In existence since 2000 and employing over 100 people, AP Taylor operates exclusive contractswith the UK’s leading retailers and manufacturers including AEG, Asda, Braun, Delonghi, Dixons Carphone Warehouse, Electrolux, George Foreman, Hoover, Kenwood, Remington, Russell Hobbs, Vax and Zanussi.

As an authorised online reseller of manufacturer refurbished and graded products, AP Taylor takes household goods that are damaged in transit or are returned by purchasers. Dealing with some 610,000 of these returns a year, it recycles all damaged packaging; then tests and, if possible, refurbishes the goods to a high-quality standard, offering these for sale at below recommended retail prices. The goods that can’t be made serviceable in this way are recycled, along with their packaging.

The Challenge

AP Taylor needs to dispose of its waste –notably the packaging of the goods it receives, along with the goods it can’t refurbish. The company had been using a 40-yard roll-on-roll-off skip service but was dissatisfied at the costs it was incurring and the level of service it was getting from its waste management supplier –which was causing backlog issues in disposing of the waste.

So, AP Taylor approached Waste King.

The Solution

Initially, Waste King used its man-and-van team to clear excess waste to minimise any risks from the waste backlog.

Next, it provided a like-for-like skip service. This entailed three 40-yard skip exchanges per week. Waste King also appointed, to oversee this work, an account manager whom AP Taylor could contact at any time via phone or email. This produced an immediate improvement inthe service level to AP Taylor.

At the same time, Waste King carried out an analysis of AP Taylor’s waste management needs –particularly focusing on the weights of the collected skips. Waste King found that AP Taylor never fully filled the supplied skips. Instead of filling each skip with some two tonnes of waste, it only produced, on average, 1.1 tonnes of waste per skip –but it paid for the disposal of the waste as if each skip was full.

Waste King’s Operations Director, Andy Cattigan, explained, “Forty-yard skips are sold as a haulage price plus a price to recycle a minimum of two tonnes. Since AP Taylor was supplying, on average, only 1.1 tonnes of waste, it was paying for 900kg of weight for no reason.

“However, what was more concerning were the number of exchanges being made -and the carbon footprint this was generating. AP Taylor was having three skip exchanges a week -totalling some 12 exchanges a month, or 144 per year.”

So, Waste King proposed –and AP Taylor agreed to -installing a compactorat AP Taylor’s site.

The Result

The compactor that Waste King has installed at AP Taylor’s site compacts with a force of 32 tonnes. As a result, AP Taylor has reduced the number of waste exchanges to only one per month –saving money and drastically reducing the firm’s carbon footprint.

AP Taylor is now only paying for the actual waste it needs disposing and is not paying a minimum charge. As a result, this has taken 132 lorries off the road.

Furthermore, Waste King has supplied a number of 1100 litre wheelie bins for use in AP Taylor’s warehouse. Waste loaded into these bins is wheeled to the compactor –which is fitted with a bin-lift option. This procedure not only saves time but also removes the costs and the risks involved in using a forklift truck to load, move and unload the warehouse waste.

Waste King has also supplied AP Taylor with a cardboard perforator. This machine perforates (waste) cardboard so that it can be used for packaging -thus ‘re-using’, instead of recycling, the cardboard –which also helps to reduce AP Taylor’s carbon footprint as well as making its operations more efficient by further reducing waste.

All the waste from the compactor is taken to Waste King’s site, where all the waste that can be recycled is separated and sent for recycling, while non-recyclable waste is sent to Waste-to-Energy.

Now that this process is working well, Waste King is in the process of providing further cost-effective improvements for AP Taylor. These include supplying a ‘tipping skip’ sothat AP Taylor staff can load their 40-yard metal skip in even greater safely. Waste King is also providing the company with a 40-yard skip solely devoted to cardboard that can’t be re-used for packaging the refurbished goods.