Scraponomics Episode 147: Our First Intern!

We have some exciting news! We have our first intern EVER working part time at Friedland! Here’s why we’re so geeked…

We’ve talked plenty of times on Scraponomics about how, while we’re excited the public is interested in recycling these days, there does seem to be a disconnect between what people think and want recycling to be, versus what it actually takes in reality to make it happen. It’s the reason we’ve decided to focus so much on education, and really, Scraponomics is an example of that effort.

While we have great partnerships with institutions like MSU and LCC, it occurred to us that only some of the students are aware of those partnerships. And they’re the future engineers, business people, and policy makers, so it’s important to us to help educate them on what recycle really means.

One awesome thing is that our student is economics major, and is super interested in learning about how the scrap markets fluctuate on a micro and macro level. So we’re training him like we’d train anyone else; from the ground up. He’ll be sorting paper, metal, plastic, and electronics until he understands the basic differences between them. Then, we’ll show him how those materials get re-melted or re-pulped at mills, foundries, and refineries, and bought and sold based on global commodity markets that change on a minute-by-minute basis. Pretty exciting stuff!

Perhaps the most exciting thing about this is that we feel like we’re finally beginning to bridge a gap that’s been between academia and the workforce outside of it for far too long. And sometimes I feel like our future depends on bridging that gap. After all, to quote Franklin Delano Roosevelt, “We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future.”

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