Living lawn mowers
The lawn mowers that keep the green strip around our mill at Reubenberg in check, no longer purr, they bleat. For the last few weeks four sheep have been happily munching on the grass and weeds. This is to the great amusement of the operators who, as well as toilet rolls, now regularly see sheep passing by.
The idea of these living lawn mowers arose during a spontaneous brainstorming session on the work floor. “What can we do to give sustainability some shape in our department?” was the question posed out loud. One of the ideas proposed was to introduce sheep to the 2500 square metre grass strip surrounding the mill to keep it short. This idea came to the attention of operator Martin Freitag. He immediately thought of the sheep that he and his partner Wolfgang Hoffs keep at home.
“Our hobby is to keep camels”, explains Martin. “They are kept on a meadow but they are not allowed to eat too much grass as this can cause them to be sick. That is why we have added sheep. The sheep eat most of the grass and keep the camels healthy in the process.” Those concerned about the camels' welfare, now that the sheep are dining elsewhere, need not to worry: Martin and Wolfgang have 12 sheep in total. There are plenty left over to guard the camels against over-consumption.
Converting Manager Ruud Eywoudt is happy with the additions to the work force. “This natural approach to mowing fits perfectly into our philosophy of sustainable development”, he explains. “And the best thing about it is that it was an idea from the staff themselves. Proof that sustainability is well and truly alive in Van Houtum Papier. It is also really nice to see grazing sheep around us. Operators often go outside to take a look at them. An extra benefit of this is that they can see if there is any rubbish on the grass. They remove it straight away of course, otherwise the sheep will eat it. And we don't want our special guests to get ill.”
The sheep will dine at 'Chez VHP' for a few more weeks. Then they will return to their faithful meadow, where they will be reunited with their humped friends.