My week in waste!
My name is Eddie Bowe. I’ve just turned 16, and last week I spent four days on work experience with SUEZ in the North West. I had just finished year 11 and GCSEs and, before my week of work experience, I had no idea what career I wanted to go into. Even before the week started, I learnt that sometimes just talking to people can lead to opportunities you didn’t know were out there. This whole experience came about through my mum being in touch with Dr Adam Read, SUEZ’s Chief External Affairs and Sustainability Officer, who very kindly arranged a week full of exciting site visits covering a wide range of roles across the company and sector as a whole. It really expanded my limited knowledge of the opportunities available across the waste sector.
On my first day, I travelled over to Higher Swan Lane where I received a very warm welcome from not just from the sustainability team led by Leigh Broadhurst and Mia Demain, but all the staff that worked there, a theme that would persist throughout the week. Leigh talked me through the minimum standards and sustainability champions, which showed me how SUEZ as a company is always striving to go further in protecting our planet.This is especially important when managing the vast amounts of waste we produce as a developed and growing society. Seeing how staff actively take part in volunteering showed me how the company cares for the community and the planet.
Staying at Higher Swan Lane, I moved from learning about how waste is managed sustainably to seeing how such vast amounts of waste are transported, with Mike Parsons and Paul Ryan from the transport and service delivery team. Mike helped explain and simplify such a complex system (by comparing it to a sausage machine!) to the point where I could almost (!) understand the organisation and planning that goes into transporting our waste. I learnt about the problems that he faces, including a surprising number of fires caused by the recent spike in vape usage and improper disposal. This showed me how the industry, which I still knew little about, involved much more than just recycling facilities and landfill sites. Paul then kindly took some time to show me around the fleet and the workshop. I learnt about the roles of different trucks and got to try out a couple of cab seats for size. My favourite was the walking floor truck!
A real eye-opener
After lunch, I then travelled to Hurstwood Court HWRC, where John Taban and Dave Garvey from the site operations team showed us around. The amount of waste that had built up in half a day was shocking, and the amount of cardboard even more so. I learnt about some of the challenges staff can face from members of the public, including situations that mean they need to wear bodycams. Even at the HWRC, it was clear that sustainability was kept in mind, with the grass left to grow and bird boxes and bug hotels put in place to support biodiversity. It was such a hot day I admired the staff working hard outside helping the public.
Just across the road, I was given a tour of Raikes Lane EFW by operations manager Dean Wedge. We looked at various parts of the site, including operations technician Ryan Cole kindly teaching me how to operate t
he huge crane, while Dean explained how the complicated process works. Seeing the huge pile of waste that was being prepared to be placed into the furnace was a good example of how important the plant is in managing our waste in the most effective way.
The next day, I travelled to the Renew Hub where I had an introduction to the company’s sustainability aims from Mia, including meeting each site’s sustainability champion. This showed me how SUEZ is looking at the present as well as the future, with its goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and creating more biodiversity at its sites.
A ‘Hub’ of surprises
After the introductions, I entered the Renew Hub with Dr Read and Executive Vice President UK, SUEZ John Scanlon, before receiving a tour of what the Hub is and how it has helped reduce waste while helping the community. I found it interesting to learn about the opportunities they give to prisoners and was surprised to see the number of items that people were throwing away despite not having much wrong with them. The entire process at the Renew Hub seemed to run exceptionally smoothly, despite the sheer number of items the volunteers receive. 
To end the day, Paul Cunliffe at the Hub let me have a try at some upholstery of my own, managing to fix a chair in less than 10 minutes, highlighting the fact that many items that are thrown away don’t always need to be. To make the most of my visit, team leader Mark Walker let me try an electric guitar, which ended up being so good that I had to buy it! All this guitar needed was one new string, showing how people tend to throw things away instead of repairing them.
On Wednesday, I visited Longley Lane MRF with Lucie Charpentier and plant manager Paul Williams, who kindly gave me a tour around the site including the rail loading area and the very loud recycling conveyer belts. I was shocked at how much of the recycling was contaminated, helping me gain an idea of the importance of national policy change and public attitude towards waste. I then had a chat with Lucy about her role in internal communications and how it is crucial to so much of SUEZ’s work, helping me gain a wider idea of the range of jobs within the sector and that speaking French is useful at SUEZ!
Sadly, Thursday was my final day which involved a trip to Knowsley Rail Loading site, where processing manager Carl Verburg and Leigh showed me around. As someone who had never seen where our general waste goes, I was blown away by the huge pits full of all sorts of things from cornflakes to green bins. I was also shocked to hear that this site alone had had four fires in the past three days. The issue of fires had been a prevalent theme throughout the week, and it was not until I was shown CCTV footage of the speed at which they spread that the extent of the problem was made clear.
Overall, my week in waste was much more fun and exciting than I had ever imagined, and I am so grateful to all the staff who gave me such a warm welcome and helped me understand what it is like to work in a sector that is so rarely talked about. The week has inspired me to be more mindful of what I am throwing away and has encouraged me to take an extra few seconds to make sure I am reusing and recycling when and where I should. I hope that I can encourage some of my friends, family and wider community to be more mindful of how they treat their waste, in order to develop a more circular and sustainable economy in the future. If I get the GCSEs I need and go into 6th form, I’ll need to do a special study project next year that 6th formers present to the whole school. Inspired by my experiences this week, I’m going to choose a topic related to waste management and the circular economy.