At a recent meeting of the British Recovered Paper Association, a presentation was made to Severnside Recycling who delivered the recovered paper load which made up the millionth tonne.
The presentation of a certificate was made by (below left) Graham Gilbert, commercial manager of M-real to Peter McGuinness, (below right) managing director of Severnside accepted the award on behalf of Severnside Ashford – the company supplying the load marking the purchase of 1 million tonnes. 
M-real (formerly UK Paper) started building the Recycled Fibre Plant in August 1994 and following the start-up in November 1995 went into full production in January 1996. The capital cost of the RCF plant was approximately 43 million and it has produced more than 600,000 tonnes of recycled fibre which is used for papermaking. The great majority of this tonnage has been pumped into the uncoated woodfree paper operation at the New Thames Mill at Kemsley situated just 30 metres from the RCF Plant.
Papermaking
New Thames Mill in turn uses this fibre in its papermaking operation on No 6 Machine to produce a the Evolve range. M-real considers it virtually impossible to tell Evolve apart from virgin papers, “meaning consumers can maintain high standards without having to make environmental compromises”.
The recovered paper has been mainly sourced from office papers and from printer’s. This supply line has been established on a long-term contractual basis and many of these contracts are currently being renewed. Mr Gilbert said: “The concept of contracts works for the mill and it would certainly appear that they work for the merchant trade as well. Regarding the milestone of achieving the 1 million tonne, our grateful thanks goes to all our suppliers on this meritorious occasion.”
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