Cornelius Vermuyden School visits Kemsley Paper Mill

On 29 June 2018, Kemsley Mill hosted the Student Council from Cornelius Vermuyden School in Essex.

A pupil at the school had previously written to the DS Smith Group’s CEO, Miles Roberts, requesting further information about recycling for the benefit of his school, and expressing his concerns about the amount of waste that goes to landfill. In response, DS Smith invited the Student Council to visit Kemsley Mill to understand how paper is recycled.

The Student Council were taught about the recycling paper process before enjoying a tour of the mill’s machine houses and stock preparation areas, to show the full lifecycle of paper recycling at Kemsley Mill.

Jonathan Scott, Recycling Production Manager at Kemsley Paper Mill, commented:

“These young students were fully engaged with recycling and sustainability, and kept us all on our toes with some fantastic, challenging questions. They left buzzing with ideas of how they can make waste management improvements back at their school!”

Sue Goldsmith, a teacher at Cornelius Vermuyden who attended the mill visit, said:

“Thank you for such a wonderful day, it was really remarkable. The children have been talking about the trip and suddenly everyone wants to be on the School Council! They had a great time, thank you.”

James Kenward, Commercial Manager at DS Smith Recycling, said:

“This was a fantastic opportunity to introduce the pupils of Cornelius Vermuyden School to the world of recycling and papermaking. The scale of our operation at Kemsley Mill is eye-opening, and it was a pleasure to see the next generation proactively engaging with the future of sustainability and recycling.”