– My name is Nora, I am 24 years old, and am soon to begin my final year as a master student at the Energy and Environment master program at NTNU in Trondheim. My master thesis is going to be a collaboration between the Institute of Industrial Ecology at NTNU and NORSUS – Norwegian Institute of Sustainability research.
This summer I am working as an intern at NORSUS. As of now, I have spent some time learning about the company and also the collaboration with Dsolve, I have joined a seminar on chemicals in hospital textiles, and I have worked with the Simapro tool.
Further on, Dsolve is my main project this summer. My tasks will differ a little, but all will be falling under Research Area 5 regarding circularity of biobased, degradable, and non-degradable plastics. For instance, this week I have been looking into articles and theory regarding the toxicity and circularity of lead used as weights in bottom ropes. In between other tasks, I am going to update numbers in Simapro, so that the life cycle analysis can be done more exact.
My summer job is also a part of the REdu program, which is a collective platform for summer students working in the recycling business. As a part of this program, I am going to be hosting an Instagram takeover on Friday June 28th at @redu_intern, where I will show other students how my day-to-day tasks are, and also talking more about NORSUS and the Dsolve-project. It is very exciting being a part of such a huge network of scientists and knowledge and learning more about what the workdays of a scientist are like.
This autumn I am going to begin my master’s thesis. Together with my supervisor at NORSUS Cecilia Askham and my supervisor at NTNU Francesca Verones, we have developed a thesis regarding the inclusion of additives in plastic gear in Life cycle assessments. This will also fall under Research Area 5, considering assessing the additives in plastic is important for recyclability, but also for analyzing the potential toxic effects if the chemicals are released to the marine environment. This feels like a very important task, and it is exciting to be a part of such a future-oriented project.