KK’s Bespoke Solution for Europa’s Cardboard Waste Management System
Europa Worldwide Group is a fast-growing privately-owned logistics operator Europa employs more than 950 people across its six divisions – Europa Road, Europa Air & Sea, Europa Warehouse, Europa Showfreight, Europa Contact Centre and Continental Cargo Carriers. Europa Road operates the UK’s largest European groupage hub which is situated in Dartford. Its network of 13 UK branches trunk into Dartford from where freight connects with daily, direct services to 30 continental hubs. The business has succeeded through a combination of friendly people management and investing heavily in IT and physical infrastructure.
KK Balers was selected by the team at Europa from a shortlist of recommended suppliers put forward by managers across its three warehouse sites. Following early discussions and a site survey by KK it was clear that the KK 500 SA baler would meet the site requirements and additional bespoke elements would compliment production needs.
Prior to having the baler installed Europa’s cardboard was double handled by staff and loaded loosely into a container, the weights per container were low and there were 10 transport collections per week. They needed a solution that was going to benefit production, staff hours and also importantly be kinder to the environment.
The bespoke solution would benefit the business by allowing two departments to recycle waste with more efficiency. The set up allows staff on the ground floor to load clean cardboard waste into bins and the bin lift function will empty bins – previously staff would dispose this card into a cardboard skip. On the first floor, staff will fill bins and load straight into the hopper, keeping the mezzanine floor clear. Previously staff would load bins and wait for transport to remove them and empty waste on the ground floor, staff would then have to reload the bins to the first floor before the process started again. The amount of staff time saved is significant to keeping the operation moving. It’s also important to recognise the improvement in Health and Safety with this new process, which is very paramount when running a busy warehouse site.
We asked Craig Roberts, Facilities Manager for Europa Worldwide Group if he could foresee any cost savings and benefits of the new waste management system he responded “ We envisage instant savings financially and by reducing our effects on the environment as our weekly collections have decreased from 10 to 1 per week – a 90% reduction in transport. We hope to generate an income from the baled product once the market recovers. We expect to see the gross weight for 1 container of cardboard increase significantly from our previous loose cardboard collections.”
He also commented on KK Balers service “KK Balers have given a professional service to the highest level, maintaining health and safety standards during delivery and install and delivering a professional training session to ensure we had the knowledge to operate the machine correctly and safely from day one.”
