Sustainability internships
The UEL Sustainability Team occasionally employs student
interns through the UEL Funded Internship Scheme when there is a project that
would be a good fit for a student to help with or lead on.
Our most recent intern, Meriam Touati, worked with the
Sustainability Team for a period of four months from March to June 2018. In
this time she developed a writing instrument recycling program on campus, where
old pens, markers, highlighters, mechanical pencils, erasers pens, felt tips
and correction tape can be dropped off at one of the designated recycling
points on all three UEL campuses. Meriam researched the best places to put
collection boxes on campus, using our existing battery recycling program as a
starting point. She was then in charge of designing informative and
aesthetically pleasing labels for the boxes, as well as purchasing and
distributing collection boxes. She created maps of the collection points on
each campus, as well as communications materials to announce and market the new
recycling program. As an advertising major, Meriam found this part of the
project to be very fun and helpful in developing her skills that could benefit
her in her other coursework.
The UEL writing instrument recycling scheme is linked up to
the wider Terracycle recycling program. UEL has partnered with local secondary school The Warren
School, in order to participate. All writing instruments at both of our
educational institutions are recycled through Terracycle, and any money
generated goes back into the Warren School. This partnership serves to further
UEL’s mission of engaging and giving back to our local community.
We aim to give our interns meaningful projects that will
benefit our team and UEL as a whole, as well as ensure that they have something
they can take ownership of and be proud to put on their CV. We want them to
come away with a more thorough understanding of sustainability, as well as
skills that will help them in their own coursework and life beyond the
classroom.