Source
r/ChemicalEngineering•
KyleGamma

Question about career in recycling

Hi everyone. I've been perusing this sub and it seems like there's a lot of advice being given. I'm currently 2 years into college at a decent state university, but I'm kind of at a crossroads. I haven't been able to pin down a major I'm interested in, but figure engineering is the best way to go for me and my future. I've taken all sorts of classes (biology, mathematics, comp sci, economics, basic engineering drafting, philosophy lol), but none have clicked. This summer I worked at a paper and pulp mill, and was exposed to some of the chemical processes involved there. Things like heat recycling, chemical recovery, and waste management have stood out for their economic and environmental benefits. So I'm wondering, if I were to pursue a degree in chem E, would that open up opportunities for things like industrial recycling or even just general recycling and waste manangement. Think working at a landfill, monitoring recyclables being broken down and shipped out. I want to help the environment in a practical way, so I'm wondering what you all think. Thanks! (sorry this is kind of long)

Posted Aug 9, 2018, 12:12 AM UTC

523
Krikkit_JellyHaz-Waste Treatment / Process Equipment R&D (Ex Chemist)•

Hi, I work in Waste Management, I'm a Chem-Eng and am actively engaged through my professional body with recruiting new blood into the waste sector.

My number 1 tip would be to learn all about the legislation covering waste (RCRA & associated EPA regulations if you're in the US).

Number 2 tip, engage with the waste Industry... SWANA and ISWA would be a good way to make contact, and then go talk to people in the industry (we're all secretly geeks just waiting for people to ask us about our area) see if you can get an Industrial Placement (Co-Op???) at an MRF, AD plant or Incinerator as part of your course (I doubt these are currently offered or recruited, so you'll need to make your own opportunity).

We (as a sector) know we need an influx of technical staff to cope with the increasing push to recycling and the circular economy, and ever stricter emissions targets, but have not got a cohesive idea of how to use them, or how to manage them in house.

Your business skills need to be as sharp as your technical ones, and you need to be unphased by working from piss-poor data, and with highly heterogeneous streams (where even good data will look godawful).

In terms of majors, below is a relevant repost of a previous answer which may help...

Also feel free to ask me questions.

The industry is a sprawling edifice, and more than a bit fractured, so are quite a few routes in:

  • Landfill: Civil, Quarry or Mining Engineering, Environmental Science, Environmental Chemistry.

  • Incineration: Mechanical or Chemical Engineering with a focus on combustion processes.

  • Hazardous Waste: General or Analytical Chemistry, to a lesser extent Chem/Environmental Engineering.

  • Municipal Solid Waste: Civil or Environmental Engineering, Public Policy and Management.

  • MSW Treatment: Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering (with a good dose of Biotech content).

  • Recycling: Mechanical Engineering, Chem/Process Engineering (specialising in solid-solid and solid-liquid separation), Materials Science, Polymer Chemistry

  • Radioactive Waste: Nuclear Engineering, Physics (especially if health or bio-physics courses are available), Materials Science (Glasses and Cements)

  • Healthcare Wastes: as Incineration & MSW Treatment.

  • Food Waste and Animal Byproducts (Rendering): a very strong stomach and willingness to even consider working in the sector is probably enough.

You could try contacting the North American chapter of the ISWA (International Solid Waste Association) Young Professionals Group to get more detailed information and possibly opportunities for placements, internships, mentoring and even foreign exchanges if you do want to join the industry.

This is a scenario where the US higher education system is an advantage, as you have a much greater latitude to build your learning around a goal by taking classes which are extraneous to your major, but develop your skills for a planned career

3
KyleGammaOP•

Thank you so much for the response, I'll definitely look into some of these. Follow-up question. Would there be room for someone in waste management on the electrical-mechanical side of things, or would would an EME likely work more indirectly just with the equipment? I really don't know much about the field, so I'm looking for lots of info. Reason being that an electrical-mechanical engineering tech major would be very accessible to me right now.

Thanks again!

2
Krikkit_JellyHaz-Waste Treatment / Process Equipment R&D (Ex Chemist)•

It really depends what you want to specialise in...

Mechanical, Control Systems, Electrical and Mechatronics are all fields which are in high demand for Municipal Solid Waste and Recycling operations.

To give you an idea, I'll talk a bit about the engineering staff at my employer:

My employer runs a number of +100,000/annum MRF's (Materials Recovery Facilities, sorting and cleaning recyclable materials into usable secondary raw material of MSW and "Dry Mixed Recycling". Each facility has at least a Mech-Eng & Electronic/Control Eng and several skilled fitters (who are often doing night-school or day release to qualify as engineers themselves) providing support for 24-7 operation. There is then a Mech-Eng who reports directly to the directors, he and his staff run a central office managing new technology development, all the drawing office functions, and project managing installations and turnarounds.

Our Polymer Recycling plant is run by a Chem-Eng as General Manager, with a few Mech and Electronic/Control Systems eng's reporting to him as well as the production, sales and purchasing staff.

Our Landfill Gas, AD and Incineration facilities are overseen by a Mech-Eng who sits on the board of directors, and his senior team are all ChemEng or Electrical Engineers (distinct from electronic engineers as they deal with power transmission to the grid), most managers and supervisory staff in the division will be Chem-Eng

Our Landfills are overseen by a Civil/Mining Engineer who again sits on the board of directors, most of his direct reports are Chemists, Environmental Scientists or Environmental Engineers.

Our Haz Waste Division is run almost exclusively by Chemists from the Director on down, but myself (R&D Manager) and the Process Manager are dual qualified (both of us were Chemists first, and re-trained as ChemEng later).

Our Fleet department also has about half a dozen Automotive/Operations Engineers who oversee the technical aspects of our maintenance workshops, develop and amend the reliability programme which we run to minimise unplanned downtime of vehicles and the design custom refuse collection vehicles.

Finally we have a Mech-Eng who works in our Safety Department, checking that the design and project management work done by all the other engineers meets or exceeds all legal requirements.

1
KyleGammaOP•

Sounds like a lot of mechanical engineering honestly haha. Do you actually personally get to work with a lot of chemistry principals and theory?

1
Krikkit_JellyHaz-Waste Treatment / Process Equipment R&D (Ex Chemist)•

Yeah, coming from a chemistry background and specialising in chemical waste, most of my projects involve a good dose of chemical sciences.

Similarly the Anaerobic Digestion and Mechanical Biological Treatment guys do a lot of biochem and process engineering work.

Polymer Recycling can have a very big chemical component, depending on the specific plastic and the grade/mechanical properties you're trying to hit.

1
ooo-ooo-oooyeaTechnical Services and Sales•

Landfills are really interesting. Stuff like Trash to Cash, Landfill Gas, or Gasification of Waste could be cool fields for you. These all love chemical engineering

My very first job out of college was involved with nuclear waste cleanup. I found it bureaucratic and kind of laconic.

2
KyleGammaOP•

How was it bureaucratic and laconic at the same time? Was it just hard to make any moves from a legal standpoint?

2
ooo-ooo-oooyeaTechnical Services and Sales•

yes sir. Just for example when we designed a pipe we would have to do a bunch of different analysis to determine if the liquid inside could convert into hydrogen and explode. We would then have to find a way to fit it into a very tight module, and finally get EPA approval which was tough because they didn't always use engineers.

Also the proejct I'm on was built but they can't get a permit to run it, so it was kind of a huge waste which is a little depressing.

1
KyleGammaOP•

I see. Thank you for the insight!

1
Indemnity4•

Here is something you can do right now - volunteer with your local chapter of Engineers Without Borders.

Most chapters have a project team working on local waste recycling in some way.

This will expose you to senior people working in engineering in your area and allow you to network and ask questions. Added bonus: this will probably end up with you doing hands-on and project work.

You probably read a lot on the sub about the importance of an internship (which you have now done). A decent project at EWB is seen by some employers as reasonably equivalent.

I always like to mention that only about 25% of the new grads at my global chemical company had completed an internship during their study. At the same time, about 25% had worked on some sort of project at EWB.

2
KyleGammaOP•

Well, it wasn't really an internship, just hourly wage work. But I learned about the systems there, and found them interesting. Also thanks for the advice, but I don't think there's EWB around my town, it's kind of in the middle of nowhere. Thank you for responding, btw!

1
Indemnity4•

At least to me, paid work > unpaid internship.

Too many interns read reddit all day and don't do any actual work.

1
at_work_altPolymer Manufacturing/8 years•

I can't comment specifically about the waste industry, but if you are very interested in helping the environment there are opportunities in pretty much every industry to do so. You can either do it directly within your site's HS&E group, or indirectly in manufacturing or R&D. A big part of an engineer's job is to minimize waste, and even though the driver is financial, there are going to be environmental benefits.

The job market is so tight right now anyway, that finding work in a particular industry, especially in your first job, is going to be very difficult.

1
KyleGammaOP•

Is the job market tight for chem e's or just engineers in general?

1
at_work_altPolymer Manufacturing/8 years•

I don't have much knowledge of the job market for other kinds of engineers, but I've heard it's generally a lot better.

1
KyleGammaOP•

Alright, thanks for responding!

1
[deleted]•

The market for ChemEs and engineers is booming. In the Midwest companies are desperate to hire new engineers but there's not enough qualified talent. I get recruiters message me on LinkedIn weekly, and I only have 2 years experience. 2018 is a very good year compared to past years

1
Krikkit_JellyHaz-Waste Treatment / Process Equipment R&D (Ex Chemist)•

The job market is so tight right now anyway, that finding work in a particular industry, especially in your first job, is going to be very difficult.

I would disagree with that, with respect to wanting to work in the Waste Industry...

Waste management is deeply unsexy, difficult from both business and engineering standpoints, and very cost-conscious, as a result recruitment and retention of good candidates in technical roles is a big challenge for us...

If someone actively seeking to join the sector, who had developed relevant experience popped up, it would be very difficult to say no; even when that means suddenly "making" a temp role to get them in the door initially, and then justifying the headcount increase down the line on the basis they're now too useful a person to do without.

0
CommonMisspellingBot•

Hey, Krikkit_Jelly, just a quick heads-up:
concious is actually spelled conscious. You can remember it by -sc- in the middle.
Have a nice day!

^^^^The ^^^^parent ^^^^commenter ^^^^can ^^^^reply ^^^^with ^^^^'delete' ^^^^to ^^^^delete ^^^^this ^^^^comment.

1
Krikkit_JellyHaz-Waste Treatment / Process Equipment R&D (Ex Chemist)•

'delete'

2
at_work_altPolymer Manufacturing/8 years•

To me this sounds like you would be willing to hire a chemical engineer, but only at below market rates. That's fine, and someone may need to take that for their first job. But I think when most people think of being employed in a particular role or field, taking a big pay cut to do so means they haven't truly achieved their goal.

0
Krikkit_JellyHaz-Waste Treatment / Process Equipment R&D (Ex Chemist)•

That's perceptive (and very much what happens to chemists in the sector), but not quite what I was getting at.

Sector wide, Engineers and "Waste Management Consultants" are actually the only two groups who seem to actually command fair market value.

The big issue is actually employing anyone at all against a strict limitation on headcount, so getting a foot in the door would usually be via a fixed term contract or even through an agency. This in many ways the same issue as above, if you're paid a decent wage but have no job security, it can be highly demoralising over time, especially if you have to wait several years to reach the front of "the queue"...

1