DS Smith Kemsley Mill cleans up with Swale Council Park Rangers

On Friday 13 April, twenty colleagues from Kemsley Mill and its power plant volunteered during their lunch hour to pick litter in nearby Milton Creek, on the perimeter of the Kemsley Mill site. This session was organised in partnership with the Swale Council Park Ranger team.

The group of volunteers had a very successful afternoon, gathering 55 bags of litter and a range of larger pieces of household waste, including a long reel of copper pipe tubing, a large washing basket, parts of a bicycle frame, and even the remains of a lifeboat.

This is the second time that the joint partnership between Kemsley Mill and Swale Council Park Rangers has cleaned up Milton Creek – on 3 March, as part of the Great British Spring Clean, the teams also volunteered their time to clean up the creek, alongside local councillors for Swale Council.

Graham Appleby, Site Facilities Manager and litterpick volunteer, commented:

Our volunteering is part of a programme of community work the Mill has arranged in partnership with Swale Council this year. By organising these types of initiatives, we aim to build stronger links with the local community and the council, while providing our staff with an opportunity to meet up with colleagues, and at the same time give something back to the community they work in. It's great to hear both colleagues and members of the public share positive feedback on the work. We are currently in discussion with the Park Ranger team to jointly make further improvements to the local park.