100 jobs on way as AO to open new Telford recycling plant
About 100 new jobs are set to be created after online electrical retailer AO announced plans to create a new plastics recycling plant in Telford.
The new four-acre site will be built close to its existing main fridge recycling facility in Halesfield.
The new site will be AO’s third planned recycling facility in just 18 months and the ambition is for this new multi-million-pound investment to process all of the plastics collected at AO’s fridge recycling plants, refining them so that they are of a better quality, meaning they can be reused in other products, even to create new fridges.
This is another significant move in helping to reduce the amount of waste plastic in the UK, the firm said.
Robert Sant, managing director of AO Recycling, said: “The investment was the next natural step in our recycling journey to create a closed-loop process.
"One of the big hurdles in reuse is producing a plastic that can be used effectively again in another products. Therefore, we have created a plant that can clean and refine to the highest possible standards.
Environment
“The aim of our recycling process has always been to get the most out of the old white goods we collect so our customers know that when they are giving us their old fridges, they are doing the best they possibly can for the environment.”
The retailer launched its first recycling facility in 2017 with the opening of the state-of-the-art fridge recycling plant in Telford.
The plant has already made a significant impact on UK recycling capacity, with 700,000 fridges expected to be recycled in its first full processing year – or about one fifth of the 3.5 million appliances thrown away annually.
The plant also process washing machines, dishwashers, tumble dryers and other large household electrical waste items.
AO announced in late 2018 that it would be opening a second recycling plant in the south east of England in the spring of 2020.
