Telford recycling plant welcomes school for ‘first of its kind’ tour led by popular children’s TV presenter

AO, Britain’s most trusted electronics retailer, ran a competition to give one lucky class the chance to get a behind-the-scenes tour of its state-of-the-art facility in Telford, led by CBBC presenter and sustainability influencer James Steward.

Ysgol Bryn Alyn from Wrexham won the prize, taking a group of 15 pupils, aged between 11 and 13.

As well as meeting AO’s huge Bertha fridge crusher, which weighs 80 tonnes and can ‘eat’ up to 100 fridges per hour, the class also got to see science experiments with Lego and learn how AO processes around 200 tonnes of fridge plastic every week. , which then makes new products, such as bathroom and kitchen fans.

During the trip, James Stewart challenged the children to ‘be TV presenters for a day’ by filming their visit on AO smartphones, and editing the footage into short videos, which have since been shared on AO’s social media channels.

Richard Holden, science teacher at Ysgol Bryn Alyn, said: “I can’t thank AO enough for choosing our school to win their competition.

“It was a really insightful day and James Stewart was great with the children, giving them the confidence to be mini TV presenters and letting them shine.”

James Stewart added: “I was absolutely blown away when I first visited AO’s fridge recycling plant, so it was great to experience it through the eyes of children this time. I think some of them have a bright future as TV presenters and sustainability influencers!”

Rob Sant, group recycling director at AO, came up with the idea for the competition after hearing that more than a third of Brits rely on their children to remind them to recycle. A survey of more than 2,000 British adults, commissioned by AO, found that around 39 percent of British adults need some help from their children when it comes to recycling.

“It’s amazing to see children taking the lead when it comes to recycling, so it was a pleasure to welcome a school class to AO Recycling for the first time ever,” said Rob.

“It was great to see how engaged they were throughout the day and the videos they created in such a short time are really impressive.”