Mark James – Choosing My Path

Mark James is the epitome of a Kilmarnock success story.
While he faced challenges and felt misunderstood in his youth, joining Kilmarnock gave Mark access to the support and opportunities he needed to take control and choose his path in life.

Mark started at Kilmarnock at age seventeen, following a turbulent and challenging time in secondary school. At Kilmarnock, Mark has worked hard developing technical skills through work in our factory. In 2019, he took a leap of faith, giving studying a second chance, participating in the Kura course at the Kilmarnock Academy. Through the Kura course, Mark flourished, transforming himself into a confident and considered leader. Despite his new outlook, Mark remains connected to his past challenges, empowering others around him to set their targets high and achieve incredible things.

Once convinced that his only path in life led to incarceration,
Mark has chosen his own path at Kilmarnock.

Listen to Mark discuss his journey in his own words below.


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Saving 6 Tonnes of Plastic from Landfill Every Year!

Every year Kilmarnock and Terra Cat save 6 Tonnes of plastic from New Zealand landfills through our cleaning and recycling partnership.

Terra Cat – a large New Zealand machinery supplier, uses plastic canisters to test machine oil samples in their Christchurch lab. Once these samples have been tested, the used canisters are sent to the Kilmarnock Basecamp in Wigram, Christchurch. The Kilmarnock team then clean and refurbish the canisters to be used again in the Terra Cat network. Through our partnership 20,000 canisters and 200,000 lids are cleaned and recycled each year, equivalent to 6 tonnes, or the weight of an adult African Elephant!

Our more than twelve-year relationship with Terra Cat has not only created great work for our team, it also supported our wider expansion into waste diversion and sustainability-focused work for a wide range of organisations. As of the date of writing, 1/3 of Kilmarnock’s income is created from work associated with landfill diversion and recycling, we are incredibly proud to be doing our bit to support a broad range of sustainability initiatives.

Check out how we clean and refurbish canisters for Terra Cat below!


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