With the danger of waste recycling piling up due to a fire at their main facility, Cumbria Waste Group needed a company which could work quickly, efficiently and cost effectively to get them back to business as usual, Spaciotempo . The problem was the destruction had been so complete there was no chance of getting the plant up and running again within a suitable timeframe. The business was able to divert the waste but ultimately needed a more sustainable and comprehensive way of dealing with the situation.

The facility handles 24,000 tonnes of waste paper and card recycling every year. The fire at the plant destroyed the site and all the equipment which went with it. It left the company with a headache i.e. the danger of tonnes of recycling material with nowhere to go. A situation which would have been unacceptable to customers and the public.

Ian Parfitt, Engineering Manager at Cumbria Waste Group said while the business had always had a Plan B in place it was uneconomical in the long term.
Mr Parfitt said: “Waste doesn’t stop coming just because our facility isn’t working. We put our contingency plans in place to direct the waste to another site while we carried out the clean-up operation. But we knew it was going to be a long drawn out operation. If we had continued in that way the company and its business would have suffered.”
 
The company did have another facility five miles north of Carlisle and decided to install a short to medium term temporary building at the site to provide a cost effective solution to diverting the waste. But there was a potential problem.

Mr Parfitt said:” Our biggest worry was whether we would be able to find a suitable building and get planning permission in time. We were now heading towards the Christmas break when local councils would shut down. But this is one of our busiest periods as people want to get rid of their waste during the holiday. We weren’t sure it could all be done in time.

“We spoke to a number of companies but it was Spaciotempo who really stood out. They came up with a plan which met our requirements, was cost effective and could be delivered on time with the relevant permissions in place.”

The Spaciotempo team began putting in the foundations to start with and within a few weeks the frame for the building was in place. The building was 35 metres x 25 metres and eight metres high.

Mr Parfitt said: “The team were fantastic. Considering there was a two week Christmas break in between them starting and finishing work it was amazing. The weather here in Cumbria was pretty bad during that period but they carried on and got the job done. By mid-February the building was up and running.”
Mr Parfitt said he was particularly impressed by the service from Spaciotempo. In particular how the company looked after all the paperwork and legislation for health and safety and installing the building - all at short notice and within budget.

He said:” To give us what we wanted at such short notice was excellent. It is a good building too. We do eventually want to have a more permanent structure but for the short to medium term this really matches our needs. We will use the building for the next three years but it is so useful we are already talking to Spaciotempo about extending this period. We have no plans to return to the original recycling facility.”

Scott Jameson, Managing Director of Spaciotempo said: “We were pleased to be able to help Cumbria Waste with the situation they found themselves in. We understood they had to have a quick turnaround but more than that it had to be a building which was sustainable in the short to medium term. It had to be robust enough to work as a recycling waste centre but also able to be installed quickly because we knew their clients and the public were relying on them.
“We do take the headache away from companies like Cumbria Waste Group because we can look after all the relevant legislation like planning and health and safety. As for Ian’s praise for our team’s I can only say this. We knew it was important to them to be up and running as quickly as possible and therefore it was important to us. When we say our customers are our top priority we really do mean it.”

Mr Parfitt added: “This was the first time we had used Spaciotempo and we would definitely use them again. They gave us what we wanted, when we wanted it and went the extra mile to make sure the whole process ran smoothly allowing us to get our business back on track.”