ABP storage in a heatwave is where summer puts the most pressure on any business or farm that holds animal by-products before collection, because the warm months combine fast decomposition with the very real possibility of a chiller or freezer failing or a power cut striking at the worst moment. Animal by-products that are perfectly well managed in normal conditions can become an urgent problem within hours if cold storage goes down on a hot day. Building a contingency plan around a reliable provider of fallen stock and ABP collection is what keeps a bad day from becoming a compliance breach, and Martlands supports businesses across the North West from our DEFRA-approved base in Burscough.
Why Heatwaves Threaten Cold Storage
Cold storage is the backbone of compliant ABP holding for many businesses, from butchers and food manufacturers to farms with chilled fallen-stock facilities. Heatwaves stress that infrastructure in two ways. First, the demand on refrigeration rises as ambient temperatures climb, pushing units harder and making failures more likely. Second, the strain on the electricity network during a prolonged hot spell raises the risk of power cuts. Either can leave a store of by-products warming up quickly, and the hotter it is outside, the faster the situation deteriorates.
The Compliance Risk of a Failure
By-products that warm up are not just unpleasant, they are a regulatory problem. The duty to store and dispose of animal by-products properly does not pause because a chiller has failed, and a store of decomposing material is both a hygiene hazard and a potential breach. Having a plan that gets material collected quickly when storage fails is therefore essential, not optional. Our overview of storage of animal by-products sets out the standards that storage must meet and that a contingency plan must preserve.
Building a Contingency Plan
A sound heatwave contingency plan starts with knowing your weak points. Identify how long your stored by-products will remain acceptable if cold storage fails, know who to call for rapid collection, and keep that contact readily available rather than buried in a file. For businesses, it also means having a manual procedure for moving material to compliant collection if refrigeration cannot be restored. The aim is to turn a chiller failure into a phone call rather than a panic, and our rapid-response fleet and same-day collection availability are built for exactly this kind of urgent need.
Reducing the Load Before Trouble Hits
One of the simplest contingency measures is to go into a heatwave with as little stored material as possible. Scheduling a collection just before a forecast hot spell empties your storage and buys you headroom if something then fails. Increasing collection frequency through the warm months keeps stored volumes low as a matter of routine, so that any failure affects a small quantity rather than a large backlog. We can step frequency up for the season and respond quickly when an unforeseen failure strikes.
Storage Resilience and Backup
Where practical, building resilience into storage itself helps, whether that is servicing refrigeration before the summer, ensuring adequate ventilation around units, or having backup cold storage capacity. Even simple measures such as keeping containers sealed and shaded slow the deterioration of material if cooling is lost, buying valuable time for collection to reach you. The discipline of sealed, leak-proof containers, which we supply, matters even more when the cold chain is under threat.
Coverage When You Need It Fast
The value of a contingency plan rests on a collector who can actually respond, and we are set up for that across the North West. We hold dedicated provision for Cheshire ABP collection and across the wider region, working from Burscough along the motorway network so that a rapid call-out is realistic even in the middle of a hot spell. Knowing that backup exists is what makes a heatwave manageable.
Records Through the Disruption
Every collection, routine or emergency, comes with a Commercial Document, so even a disrupted heatwave leaves you with complete records of lawful disposal. That continuity protects you with inspectors and assurance schemes, which expect an unbroken paper trail regardless of the weather.
Where Heatwave Storage Plans Tend to Fail
Most by-product storage works fine in normal conditions and only reveals its weak points in a heatwave. Chillers run continuously and are more likely to fail under sustained high ambient temperatures, power supplies can drop during peak summer demand, and storage that was adequate for a winter collection gap proves far too small once warmth accelerates decomposition. The businesses that cope are the ones that thought through these scenarios before the hot spell rather than during it.
Building Contingency Into the Summer Routine
A workable heatwave plan covers the obvious failure points in advance. Knowing how quickly an emergency collection can be arranged if a chiller fails, keeping storage equipment serviced before the hottest weeks, siting storage out of direct sun, and increasing routine collection frequency so that less material is ever held at once all reduce the risk. The aim is simple, which is to make sure that even on the worst day of a heatwave, stored by-products are contained, chilled and on a short path to a licensed collection rather than sitting and spoiling.
To build a heatwave contingency plan for your ABP storage anywhere across the North West, call Martlands on 01704 776977 and we will make sure rapid, compliant collection is there when your cold storage is not.
