My Experience Working as a Compost Intern Under NSS in Spring 2024
May 31, 2024
Open gallery
David Einhorn
Major: Environmental Studies
Class of 2026
Any specific projects reliant on working with the rocket were shelved towards the tail end of the semester. Even still, Sam made a point of running through the means through which the Rocket treats food waste, which involved picking through and sizing up portions of wood chips to mix in a 1:1 ratio with pre consumer waste from the hub. We ran through the rocket’s processing time and capacity, as well as the limits that its dystunctionality put it under in terms of servicing. This was done to deepen our understanding of the internship’s core focus, even without understanding the sources of the rocket’s dysfunction back in early February. Outside of rocket-related work, must of what I did involved collaborating with other NSS internships, including the native plant garden, land stewardship group and the Freestore.
As it pertains to the compost internship, one of the more specific and noteworthy things I did was get quotes from waste haulers. This involved running through a list in pdf form of every food scrap hauling service that made themselves available for pick-up services in Westchester county. The sustainability and price of each given contracting service was vetted through separately (the bulk of my time was spend on this end - finding services that were both sustainable and logistically viable). We ended up getting a quotes from several services, with the most likely curbside composting, a composting and food scrap service based in Ridgefield Connecticut. As mentioned earlier, the Rocket was up-and-working towards the tail of the end of the semester. I helped to service it several times, and certainly look forward to using more in my remaining semesters. Even before being picked as a compost intern, I obviously intended on applying any working knowledge towards any future career goals & work opportunities. I aim on working as a seasonal instructor Brooklyn Botanical garden this summer, and I don’t doubt that my experience doing outreach for my NSS internship - poster making, and being receptive to people interested in compost jars during our Earth Day event - will be helpful in this sense.
I want to pursue a career in environmental remediation, and as such any experience such in environmentally-oriented fields such as conservation, ecology, forestry and waste management are of immense use. Regardless of the technically difficulties that the Rocket faced for much of the semester, there is no doubt that I feel more confident pursuing such a career as a function of the experience gained in this NSS internship.