K&M Global, one of the UK’s largest independent suppliers of Mercedes Ambulance Parts tells more about their ambulance recycling process.
An ambulance that comes off the factory assembly line may not appear as new as it seems. 30% of the ambulance’s total weight is made up of recycled metals.
“The advantage of this process, environmentally, is that the materials live on,” says Managing Director Steven Dronsfield as he walks around his workshop where the vehicles are being dismantled into used ambulance parts.
Rick Suthers, Sales Director, said:
“We dismantle the vehicles into many re-usable and re-sellable ambulance parts and have customers all over the world who we supply.
We have customers in the Middle East & Africa who take the engines, the ambulance body parts, axles and wheel rims generally go to Eastern Europe and the remaining used ambulance parts are distributed to our other customers over the globe.”
K&M Global has quickly established itself as one of the UK’s leading ambulance dismantlers.
The remaining materials which are removed from the vehicle that aren’t re-sellable are separated into iron, aluminium, brass, copper, plastic, combustible and so on and disposed of through our local Authorised Treatment Facility (ATF).
K&M Global is working hard to reduce their environmental footprint and run a fully sustainable yard at its home in Dobcross, Saddleworth, in Greater Manchester.
“We are careful to consider the surrounding environment, our resources and future generations,” says K&M’s Finance Director, Jane Dronsfield. She added: “Furthermore if we can supply recycled green parts back into the industry, we feel we are helping in some small way.
Since it takes much less energy to manufacture finished products using recycled materials rather than from new, the environmental gains are considerable. Also, recycling has financial advantages. Say, for example, there is a shortage of certain metals, and in turn, rising prices, then recycling becomes even more important.”
“We have always supplied ambulance parts to our international customers. The vehicles are highly maintained throughout their service, and we can easily guarantee the working mechanical parts,” says Rick Suthers. “We have a good relationship with our suppliers who ensure we receive the best quality stock. This helps us greatly in our job as ambulance parts suppliers”
Operations Manager Sam Horrocks explained:
“It takes the team approximately 4-5 hours to completely dismantle the vehicle into ambulance parts and clean all the components that are to be sold on. In all, our workshop processes around 250 ambulances a year”.
He continued, “The ambulance body parts from this particular vehicle are in excellent condition, so we will remove, clean and store these for re-sale. The body will then be disposed of at our ATF. Any oils, gases and other waste are collected, stored and disposed of through the correct channels. We re-cycle the diesel and re-use in our machines and generator.”
K&M has recently been heavily involved with a charity convoy of ambulances travelling from the UK into Ukraine to help with the relief effort. Not only did the company donate one of their fleet, but they also assisted the team with customs advice and documentation and helped with logistics.
Speaking to ATF Professional last month, Rick said: “We were honoured to be asked to get involved in such a worthy cause; donating an ambulance was the least we could do.
We are so grateful to everyone who donated medical & humanitarian aid to load in the back to travel with the vehicle.
Given our background in exporting vehicles worldwide and our extensive knowledge of logistics & customs procedures, we felt we could offer a lot more to the process than just the ambulance.
We wish the convoy the best of luck in their mission.
On the back of our social media posts, we were contacted today by another party in the USA who is looking to obtain an ambulance to take to Romania to help evacuate people from Ukraine.”
Read the article ‘K&M Global sends relief to Ukraine’ in ATF Professional.
All information about the charity and how to donate can be found at www.ambulancesforukraine.org
K&M Global was established in 2017 by Steven Dronsfield and started trading in 2019 following a management buyout of Dronsfields Ltd, Steven’s former company.
To purchase ambulance parts or any other parts, please enquire on their website or call them on +44(0)1457872718.
