Episode 5 Show Me What You're Made Of

Noah, Hansa, Safia, Josh

and Kazia are now on the last leg of their working tour of the UK.

Today, they're travelling over 200 miles to

Bristol in the south-west to work with some of their most

favourite things - clothes.

For our final visit, I am bringing our group here

to a clothing recycling factory.

Now, there is serious money to be made

from the things that we throw away.

£23 billion last year, to be exact.

And in the UK, we don't wear a third of the clothes that we buy,

meaning that they often end up in places like this.

Over the next two days, our five are definitely going to

have their work cut out.

Will chatterboxes Hansa and Kazia finally put a sock in it?

-"Ooh, it's a bra!"

-"I'm so immature!"

"I'm a boy!"

Or will Noah have the last laugh?

Holy moly!

And which of our five will stand out from the rest

to bag a job in our very last factory?

It's up to you to now tell them who you would hire.

I would hire...

The Bristol Textiles Recycling Centre is one of the biggest

companies of its kind in the south-west of England.

40 staff work on the factory floor. And they are all Polish.

Between them,

they process over 20 tonnes of our second-hand clothes every week.

So if you've taken an old jumper or pair of jeans to the charity shop

recently, you never know,

there's a chance it might end up on this conveyor belt!

But what do our fashion-savvy five make of recycled clothes?

Time to meet bosses Tina and Natalia.

-Hello, I'm Tina.

-Tina, nice to meet you.

-This is Natalia.

How do you do, Natalia?

Does anybody know anything about recycling or recycling clothing?

Isn't recycling when you get rubbish and turn it into something new?

The clothing that we buy is all clean clothing from charity shops

and it's brought to the factory

and sorted and sent to lots of different countries,

mainly Africa, Pakistan and Eastern Europe.

What's it like, the idea of wearing second-hand clothes?

I don't think so.

For our pampered, fashion-obsessed girls,

looking good in the latest gear is everything.

This is my favourite T-shirt.

I love it cos it's colourful and happy

and it goes into all the way...like a galaxy into a beach - I love it.

They spend thousands on new clobber every year.

And when trends change, yesterday's clothes are cast out.

Kazia loves clothes and always wants to be wearing everything that's

on trend, and sometimes she will buy them and won't even wear them.

Oh, my God, I've still got the tag in this.

But do they know where this throwaway fashion ends up?

The whole world wants to buy

second-hand clothing from this country

because our fashion is really sought-after.

I wouldn't wear second-hand stuff, I just wouldn't.

So do you think we will be able to change your mind today?

I hope so.

I think we will.

'As this is our fifth factory, I'm hoping you are right, Tina.'

Hundreds of bags of our clothes arrive every day

at the factory by the truckload.

The factory buys 90% of its clothes from charity shops.

The remaining 10% are received in donations.

Each bag is opened by hand and the clothes arranged on a conveyor belt,

before getting sorted into different types.

The pickers throw the clothes into long chutes that go

to the level below, where they are emptied and weighed.

They are then packed and bound for shipping, ready to be sold abroad.

Tina wants to start the kids off at the heart of the production line.

When all the bags are brought back from the charity shops and wherever

we have got donation stations, it's all brought into a big pile here.

I want to climb it.

Everything is very physical, very hard work and long hours.

-So physically demanding sort of manual labour?

-Yes.

-Which...isn't music to these five's ears.

-No.

'Especially not Hansa and Kazia's.

'They've had a terrible track record in the previous four factories.

'For these two bezzie mates,

'taking work seriously has been a massive problem.'

-Yo!

-Yo!

-Check out my cool hat!

-Yo!

'They've ignored their bosses...'

-MAN:

-Guys, cut out the sniggering and get the make-up off.

Don't be rude. You're wasting my time.

Quick as possible, please. I'm really unhappy.

'..and given grief to Noah when he was supervisor.'

-Noah?

-What?

It's gone wrong.

Noah, I've done it wrong.

Yeah. One at a time, ladies.

Noah...

LAUGHTER

'So can I talk some sense into them at our final factory?'

I know you're capable and bright

and when you put your mind to it, you can do it.

It's just the talking

and the lack of interest halfway through a task that let's you down.

We just talk about anything and everything, so it's hard to...

when you go in, to forget about being friends and not to talk.

Do you girls feel as if you have a point to prove here?

Yeah. I think it's cos it's our last factory,

-we want to go out in a good step, yeah.

-Exactly.

And...go out with a bang.

We're all agreed - fifth, final factory,

you're going to go out there and smash it.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-That's what I like to hear.

'I really hope our girls stick to their word out on the factory floor.

'This is their very last chance to turn it around.'

First up, our kids will be working at one of the busiest

sections of the factory - the conveyor belt.

I'm going to assign you each to two bins,

and each of those bins is a different piece of clothing,

so you have to pick the clothing up and throw it in the bin.

It's a repetitive job that will require their full attention

for a whole hour!

And Tina's got something special in store for Noah.

-CHATTER

-Um, could.... Right, OK!

I genuinely got... Oh...

You are going to do ladies' underwear...

-LAUGHTER

-..and bras.

-Bras - that's your two bins.

-I love that.

So I have to touch second-hand ladies' underwear and bras?

'Aw, poor Noah.

'That's really PANTS!'

OK. Three, two, one, off you go.

It sounds easy, but scooping up each piece of clothing,

working out what it actually is,

and getting it into the right bin can be a real challenge.

Is that a swimming costume?

And when it comes to other people's underwear, sometimes you don't

want to know WHAT it is.

Noah, there's some.

A-Agh!

That must give you some serious wedgies.

'It's called a thong, Noah.'

OK, that is not nice.

I have to, like, touch them all

and, like, I'm going to have to wash my hands after this.

It actually seems like loads and loads of lacy underwear

and everything coming his way.

I think it's funny.

Hansa and Kazia together usually means lots of chatter and no work.

But this time the girls seem to be sticking to their word

and knuckling down.

We want to do well because I've never been promoted

and, kind of, it's the last task so you want it to be a good one.

The girls have impressed boss Tina so much, she's giving them

even more to do.

Right, then, I'm going

to increase the bins that you're going to be doing, OK?

OK.

So, this is your bin here, which is men's ties.

OK.

So men's ties, you're doing your two there.

-No sleeves...

-Long sleeves.

-Long sleeves, jogging bottoms.

Adult T-shirts.

You're doing socks.

-Socks.

-Soft toys behind you,

and you've polo with hoods.

But a few paces away, Noah seems to be making a meal of things.

Is that really a bra?!

-SILLY ACCENT:

-"Hello, how are we today?

"We are good!"

Wow! Oh, you put it on like a jacket.

Boss Tina doesn't mind workers trying on the clothes,

so long as it doesn't interfere with their work.

I have it. Ta-dah!

HE LAUGHS

-Noah?

-Yeah?

You're being really stupid, you know that?

I'm being stupid? You're allowed to wear the things.

I don't put on these Y-fronts and go, "Look, Noah, I'm a man!

"We can share pants now."

-Everyone here is...

-"A bra!"

"Oh, it's a bra. I'm very mature. I'm a boy!"

Interestingly,

the girls don't seem impressed with Noah's behaviour, which is crazy

because, ordinarily, we've got Hansa and Kazia nonstop talking. So maybe

they've finally realised that this is the last chance to prove themselves.

Here, Noah, here's an even bigger bra for you to wear.

Holy moly!

Unimpressed by Noah's antics, boss Tina calls an end to the task.

OK.

It's the end of the shift now and I'm going to have a word with

all my co-workers, just to see how you've done.

So that's it now finished.

Ah, here they are.

'Will Noah's showmanship finally work in the girls' favour?'

How did you find that task?

-All right.

-I liked it.

-Good!

And when the idea was mentioned that you would be dealing with

second-hand clobber, you were really worried.

-You didn't think you had it in you.

-Yeah.

I think we all thought it would be proper skanky and smell

and it would have stains on it... but it really wasn't.

And you convinced them that you would be able to turn them around.

True, yeah, and I did.

How do you think Hansa and Kazia have done?

Yeah, they were doing very well.

They were listening to what I was saying.

They were picking up rubbish, they were asking questions,

they were focused.

They were very quick, so I was very pleased.

Thank you. Thank you.

How did Noah get on?

He was quite focused at the beginning,

then he had a little bit of a loss of concentration.

I don't mind people dressing up in the factory as long as it

doesn't interfere with their work.

And, girls, what did you make of Noah today?

-We could hear his voice the whole time...

-Cackling.

..and it was bit annoying.

Wow, what a turnaround.

-So you're saying that Noah playing up was disrupting you two.

-Yeah.

Normally it's the other way round,

us being silly and him being perfect.

You don't have to wait any longer because Tina is going to fill you in.

So, the girls are promoted and the boys are demoted.

-Yes!

-Yes!

-STACEY: Wow!

That's my first promotion!

Kazia's first ever promotion

and the first girls' group promotion.

WHOOPING

We always knew we could do it.

I thought, final factory, you need a different attitude

towards the work.

You need to come here and smash their socks off.

'So what do our demoted boys make of that?'

We're kind of gutted but I can see why.

I can see why we got demoted.

Yeah, definitely. You know...

It was more fun than it was actual working, which is sort of like...

That isn't really the greatest mix.

You want working to be the number one priority and then fun.

So it's the end of the first day in our final factory

and what a day it was.

We've got a girl-boy split now, which wasn't on the cards.

The people I assumed would do well didn't, and vice versa.

However, the boys have vowed to come back fighting tomorrow,

so it's all up for grabs.

Fortunate Safia, Hansa and Kazia only ever buy brand-new clothes,

but over half of Brits today buy second-hand gear,

so I've arranged for our girls to visit supervisor Natalia,

who lives around the corner from the factory.

-Come on in.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

Just like our girls, Natalia loves clothes,

only her wardrobe is a bit different to our three's.

That's all my clothes.

Three-quarters of it is actually recycled or from charity shop

-or our workplace.

-Really?

Why would you like having recycled clothes?

I think it's just using the clothing which is perfectly fine to use

and it's not been thrown away.

So how much does Kazia's clothes habit set her back?

In a month, I would spend about £200 to £300 on clothes...maybe.

Wow.

I love shopping!

I don't spend much money on any clothing any more.

Like, yeah, I might be spending...

about £2, £3 a week just for clothes which I actually need.

What do you do with your monthly income?

Do you save it or go out and spend it?

I obviously pay rent and obviously have got bills to pay, as well,

and obviously support my family when needed,

so, yeah, I'm sending it monthly.

It's weird, because we've never had to think of stuff like that

and normally it's the parents supplying the money for us,

rather than us supplying the money for our parents.

I can't believe she spends like, only £2, £3, £4 on clothes.

That's actually crazy because, you know, £2, £3, like...

In my shops, normally you couldn't buy anything,

maybe a hairclip. Seriously.

To help the boys find their focus, across town I'm taking them

to meet a family who came to Bristol from Poland to work.

-Hello.

-Hi.

-Come on in.

It's not only the adults coming here for work whose

lives are turned upside down.

It's a big change for their kids, too.

Kasha and her son Mikowai arrived in the UK eight years ago.

-What age were you when you came?

-Five.

Five? So imagine that, lads.

As a five-year-old, you're taken to another country,

a foreign country. You don't have a word of English in your vocabulary.

Nothing, yeah.

Was it hard for you to learn it all so quickly?

It was, yeah, because I didn't understand what anyone was

saying in lessons, or anything, and if they told me what to do,

I'd just look at them blankly and not know what to do.

I would have felt really, like, lost, you know, like, sort of

isolated from everyone else, you know.

Yeah, it kind of was like that.

Mum, you look a bit emotional?

Yeah, I feel, yeah. I remember the first day...

..when I was sitting there

and waiting for him and he was so, so, unhappy at that time...

..because he couldn't understand some words.

Well done, you. Boys, imagine doing that?

I can't even learn languages now.

It's hard, I can't do Spanish or anything,

and to learn it from five years old, I think that's amazing.

Where do you feel more comfortable, like, in England or in Poland?

Thanks a tough question, actually.

It's split between the two, cos I've lived here for so long,

I guess this is more where I belong, but Poland is where I was born

and it's my culture and it's... That's where my whole family is.

I think we got it easy.

Compared to theirs, our lives are simple,

and they've gone through so much more than we've had to.

Mikowai, he's had difficulties speaking English and making friends

and, you know, I think that must be really hard as a five-year-old.

Now they've all heard, first hand, the sorts of sacrifices people make

to come and forge a life here, will they take work

more seriously tomorrow?

So, it's the morning of day two, and I'm really looking forward

to seeing how our five get on.

They've all promised to dig deep and deliver.

It's their final day of the experience, so, let's wait and see.

Yesterday, Hansa and Kazia took everybody by surprise

by giving it some real welly.

But will they be able to prove themselves in this final ever task?

With a 6am start, everyone's a bit bleary-eyed.

First up, Tina briefs the promoted girls and has some big news.

-What am I doing, then?

-You're the supervisor.

-Wow.

So, you have to be in charge of all your colleagues.

That's a huge turnaround for Kazia.

-You have to be quite forward...

-OK.

..and not worry about what people think of you.

Are you, like, all right with that? The thought of being a supervisor?

Yeah, it's a bit weird,

because normally it's like you or Noah, like, the good people.

And the feather in Kazia's cap...

You have to supervise the boys, as well.

You have to be on their backs quite a lot.

Bag opening is a job where you have to keep them going,

tell them what they're doing.

This could be interesting.

Kazia made Noah's life difficult when he was supervisor.

Will the tables be turned this time around?

On the other side of the factory,

the boys are getting stuck into their task.

They've got to rip open the bags of clothes

and stock the conveyor belt quickly enough to feed the sorters upstairs.

The clothes must be spread out evenly with no gaps...

Oh, that's a clump again.

..and any curtains, bedding, soft toys and shoes removed.

These get put into another container.

-I picked it up.

-Where are the curtains going?

It sounds simple, but left to their own devices,

the boys are soon distracted.

-Wrong way up, you...

-No, it isn't.

-Yes, it is!

Oh, there's lots of teddies.

You need to sort the teddies.

They're trousers.

Who would wear...?

Holy moly, this weighs a lot.

# Can't touch this

-# Can't touch this... #

-Hammer time!

Back over the other side, Hansa and Safia are busy emptying the collected

clothes from yesterday into trolleys, ready to be weighed.

A normal worker does this at speed.

Kazia usually loves exercising her lungs.

Hansa, it might help if you take more than one out.

-OK, yeah.

-That might be a bit faster.

But, for once, it seems like she's run out of chat.

She's going too slow. Much too slow. It's got to be like this.

I just feel really mean.

It's fine, it's fine, because she's doing a good job

but she just has to do it quicker.

So, Kazia tries a different approach with Safia.

Saf, it might help if you go a bit faster.

Like, take more than one out at a time.

See, you might get a bonus, Saf.

Don't like this very much.

Back at the conveyor belt, and there's a problem.

Wait, we've got a massive gap.

Without a supervisor to steer them, Josh and Noah are causing chaos.

Go faster!

He keeps shouting to go faster but you have to separate everything.

You have to pile the mountain, bring the rock from the mountain,

break the rock and then send the rock away.

Can't do it for ten minutes, never mind eight hours.

There's just so much.

One of the workers is forced to step in to get things back on track.

Boys, do you know the only reason your helper is here

is because you're so slow.

They've had to call in real workers, because you're not capable.

Do you think it's just because it's physically demanding, manual labour?

I don't know. It's not easy.

With the production line almost at a halt,

Tina has to get her factory moving again.

Got a problem over on bag opening.

We've got a Polish gentleman helping your bag openers,

there should be only two bag openers at any one time,

so they're going too slow.

But can Kazia do any better ordering Josh and Noah around?

You're going too slow and there's still clumps.

I think we should have a break, if I'm totally honest.

You need to stop standing on the clothes,

cos you're making them dirty.

It's hard not to stand on them, cos they're everywhere.

That's the thing, you're meant to be clearing them up out the way.

That's what we're trying to do, but there's no ground to stand on

to clear up.

With the boys not really listening,

Tina pulls Kazia aside for some words of advice.

How do you think you're doing as a supervisor?

Erm, well, I'm finding it quite hard, actually, because it's weird

for them going in as my friends, then I'm telling them what to do.

It's your job to make everybody feel a little bit lifted,

so how would you go about doing that?

-It's like, come on, you can do it.

-Yeah, yeah.

-It's like having a lot of enthusiasm.

-That's right.

Be positive.

With a renewed sense of purpose,

Kazia heads back out onto the factory floor.

-How do you think you're doing?

-Not good.

Think of the other workers that have to do it for ages.

I'd like to do this for zero time. No offence.

Do you want me to try and help you, then?

-That would be nice, yeah.

-I'll help you, then.

Just, like, try your hardest and it'll be all good.

You've got to think, like, I can do this. Come on.

Positive. We have to do this. We can do it. Come on!

Back with the girls, Kazia immediately has another problem

-to deal with.

-Safia, you OK? What's happened?

I can't move it.

Each sack needs to weigh 71kg,

and Saf is struggling to shift it to the scales.

I can't actually drag it now.

It was hard enough when it was near 30.

Yeah, let's do it together, yeah.

OK. Three, two, one...

Oh, my God. We can drag it.

You still need to get some more, though.

-There aren't any more.

-Just leave the bag by the thing...

-Yeah.

-..and let's start another one, yeah?

-Back we go.

Positive thinking.

Let's go.

Supervisor Kazia has finally licked all of her workers into shape.

With the factory operating at full pelt again,

boss Tina is happy and calls time on the task.

At first, I was like, "Oh, I have to tell people what to do,

"they're going to hate me," kind of thing,

but I think I got into it, actually.

Kazia has been quite a strong supervisor, actually.

I think, initially, she was quite hesitant and nervous about

the whole thing, but, you know, she went about it well,

she was very polite, she used her manners when she was telling people

what to do and, halfway through,

she just rolled her own sleeves up and got stuck in.

Good job, people. Whoa! Hashtag proud.

-Hashtag awesome.

-Hashtag amazing.

-Hashtag yay.

Hashtag swagger-licious.

Hashtag I want a group hug.

So, that's it. Hashtag boardroom.

So, Tina, could you tell us very quickly

a bit about how our kids have done, individually?

So, if we start with Hansa.

She was very attentive towards what she was doing.

She was listening to what I was saying and doing the right

thing, so... And she did it quite fast,

so I thought she was very good.

And can you tell us how Kazia has got on?

You were a little bit unsure how to not boss people around,

but take authority into what they were doing.

But once you got over that, I think you were very, very good indeed.

-Thank you.

-How do you feel Saf has got on here?

It's quite hard when you're doing the running,

which was like bringing the clothing down through the bins.

-I think you took that on quite well.

-How has Josh done?

The bag opening proved to be an enormous task for the boys.

It was a really physical job.

It was like... Do you know when you try to run through water?

It was like that.

It was like that. It took all of my energy.

And, Tina, can you tell us how Noah has done here?

He's been very cheerful. He's had a laugh.

He's had a joke, but it must never interfere with your work.

And you weren't great, I don't think, on the mountain.

-Ahh, no.

-There was just so much moaning.

It was like Hansa and Kazia, week one to four.

So Tina, you've seen all five in action over the past couple of days.

It's up to you to now tell them who you would hire,

were they old enough.

OK, so I would hire Hansa and Kazia.

Yes!

I feel like, at the beginning, our group didn't really know their

own country, but now, after spending time in five different factories and

farms meeting workers from all over the world, and having the chance to

experience for themselves the hard work that goes on here, they now

understand the UK that is on their doorstep, but often hidden from view.

And now our kids have returned to their families,

has anything changed?

Two weeks ago, Kazia relied on her mum for everything.

Words just can't describe how much I've learnt.

Before, if my mum asked me to do something, I would be like,

"No, you can do it."

One big dramatic change is that she has started helping round the home.

I've taught her how to iron, which is amazing.

This UK trip has also been a game-changer for Josh.

I felt like a lot of poverty and stuff like that was

more in other countries, like bigger countries,

because there's a lot more people but it turns out that it is here,

as well, and it's just that we don't see it sometimes.

Whatever's happened to him, he's come back a little bit more

switched on, so he's a bit more awake.

I appreciate now how much my parents work to give me money.

I've seen how hard other people work.

I don't really take money for granted as much now.

I think that Hansa has had a big reality check.

I think she now appreciates a bit more how fortunate she is.

Before the trip, Noah was a real showman.

I think, slowly, I'm sort of changing a lot more as a person,

you know? I'm like... I've sort of matured a lot more into a man.

I think really being in some of the places he was

and seeing how hard people work to support their families

and the types of jobs they did, that has had an impact on him, yes.

Working their way around the UK has made all of our kids

look at their own country with fresh eyes.

I'm much more aware about the world around me

and what actually happens, rather than staying in my little bubble.

But now I'm like, maybe they need help, maybe I should do this,

and thinking about others for a change.