Telford

700,000 fridges are recycled a year

The plant is the most efficient and advanced in the UK – it sets a new standard in recovering the metals, plastics and gases out of the old fridges.

It took 50 lorry loads to build the new recycling plant, 22km of cable runs through the plant and it took 2.5 man years to build.

More than 3.5 million old fridges are thrown away in the UK every year – and the number is growing.

AO Recycling was set up to carry out the large scale recycling of fridges and domestic appliances such as washing machines, tumble driers and dishwashers, sometimes known as WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment).

Wherever possible, machines are repaired and refurbished for resale. Nothing is wasted. Safe, responsible, sustainable – it’s what we do.

All products that have been refurbished are graded and come with a guarantee so consumers can be safe in the knowledge that they have been skillfully repaired, cleaned and thoroughly tested at our plant in Telford in Shropshire.

We have a team of highly skilled engineers who repair the appliances, after all re-use is the best form of recycling. We often receive back machines that we have refurbished years before – that’s a few extra years of life we’d given it before we then process it through our state of the art recycling machine.

Engineers first remove oils and refrigerants from the old machines for safe disposal. Dangerous gases are also safely removed during the process – including CFC gases in older fridges and pentane gases in more modern fridges. Ferrous and non-ferrous metals, plastics and insulation foam then get separated and sorted at the plant. These are sold on as raw materials for new products.

We don’t believe in standing still, we are constantly looking for new ways of how we can improve the industry. We partner with some of the nation’s leading recycling experts, to find new ways of recycling and find new innovative ways businesses can use the recycled materials.

We believe we can learn from others about how to improve what we do in the future. We work with experts to understand how the world is changing and what the key environmental and sustainability challenges are. We constantly examine how we should respond to these challenges as a business – and always look at ways of taking a more sustainable approach to business.

It’s the responsibility of every retailer selling electrical items to contribute to the safe recycling of the products bought by their customers. We can help retailers to meet their producer compliance responsibilities.