Eight-year-old Ruby Edmunds and her classmates from Aberdare Town Church Primary School became "plastic investigators" for the day at our Aberdare store after Ruby wrote a letter asking for our help.
Julie Cook, the store's community champion, was so touched by Ruby's letter that she called in to see her class and then invited them into the store to learn more about recycling and the small steps we can all take every day to reduce plastic waste.
Ruby's teacher Liz Hamlin said: "In class we’ve been learning about recycling materials as part of science lessons, talking about how long different things like plastics take to decompose. Ruby was horrified by the length of time some things take to decompose.
"She took it on herself to write to lots of different companies, but Asda was the only one she heard back from. We were just finishing a lesson making models out of recycled materials when Julie came in and surprised Ruby with a visit.
"Ruby had a lovely time at Asda. Julie was lovely; very welcoming and she explained a lot to the children. They were really interested walking round the store looking at the different packaging. They all really enjoyed their day."
Ruby's letter said how she wanted to help save the planet by recycling plastic, and she asked what Asda and our customers are doing to help.
The children spent the morning at Asda Aberdare learning about how to recycle different packaging, how to check the labels on packaging and got the chance to see how we sort waste at Asda ready to go to the recycling plant at Chepstow.
At the end of their visit the children made pizzas which they took back to school to cook and eat. Julie also invited them to choose a drink in the cafe and then set them a challenge to work out which recycling bin to use when they’d finished.
Julie said: “I love the children coming into store. It brightens up not just my day but everybody’s day! If we teach our children about the environment today hopefully it will be a better place to live in future.”
If you know a group of children who’d like to become Plastic Investigators then get in touch with your local store's community champion to find out more.
