On Wednesday I had an interview for a research associate/fellow position in Queen’s University, Belfast. The position is part of research being carried out on an all island basis to do research into applications for the transport applications.
I’d been asked to prepare a 5 minute presentation on “how my experience prepared me to do research in the high performance thermoplastic composites.”
I had learnt off the presentation and happy I knew what I was going to say. As this was an academic position I looked at the people I thought were leading the research so I looked at their areas of research and revised up on finite element analysis and did a review of high performance thermoplastics and their composites and methods of manufacture.
I’d prepared a few questions in relation to the position; we there plan’s to extend the research beyond April 2011, was the position part of the new “Institute for a Sustainable Future” and about their facilities.
I have to admit I didn’t get as much research done as I would normally have liked. I could blame my 3 week old son for not letting me get any sleep at night, and busy evenings. Or my 2 ½ yr old daughter for not letting me get any peace during the day to spend a few days doing the research work.
So on the day I got there 20 min early to relax and compose myself. I’m happy the presentation went Ok. I hindsight think I should have stood up. I normal do during presentations standing and I feel it flows much easier for me when I stand up.
So what was I asked about?
I know where in transport applications high performance thermoplastics are being used? I have to admit, I had to mostly rely on previous experience and knowledge rather than my research but was able to give an answer if not as good I would have liked.
Had I worked in teams? I elaborated on one of the projects I mentioned in the presentation so this was well answered I think.
I was asked about the processing of Wood Plastic Composites, but this was more to educate the interviewer rather than to test my knowledge. I was then asked about crack propagation and how it could be prevented. I was able to answer this question, but I don’t think I as fluid as I would have liked. I also forgot one method of preventing it by using fibres perpendicular to the direction of the crack direction.
I floundered on my own questions, I had made assumptions, but the research was not part of the new Institute, so this threw me a little. So the question on facilities went straight out of my head.
The interview was quick, 25 min with no casual, social conversation you would normally get in other interviewers where they are trying to find out a bit about you as a person.
I’m not overly happy with how the interview went. I could have been prepared better and should have been. I’ll hopefully find out what they made of it.
Lesson’s for next time?
My 2 ½ yr old is going to a new crèche, it’ll give me a chance to get work done. So I’ll get my research done better. I didn’t use a mind map like I normally would. It would have helped me cover all the areas I needed to research for the interview.
I have contacts in Queen’s I should have used them to try and find out more about the role and the people doing the research so I knew the panel better. The Personnel dept in Queen’s wouldn’t even tell me how many were on the panel never mind who was on it.
Hopefully I'll get some news next week, as I try to set up more possibilities.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Being Green is getting easier
On the 17th October 2009 the Irish Times published an article by Ita O’Kelly, “It’s not easy being green”. An interesting article, but a little ill informed. (http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2009/1017/1224256876843.html)
Ita first questions us what ever happened to bringing bottles back to the shop. There are very simple issues as to why we cannot simply return our bottles and jar’s . From my recollection it was only the drink’s companies which in the past operated the return’s policy. Now a days we have such a wide range of products all in their own packaging that returning them to the shop would be a logistical nightmare especially since so few of these products are now made in Ireland. What we have now is that glass is collected in bottle banks, where it can be safely handled, centrally collected and compacted to minimise shipping costs (and hence fuel consumption and CO2 production.)
Ita reminisces when “butter came in foil paper, water came out of the tap, the butcher wrapped meat in paper and courgettes did not come in a plastic three-pack. Today everything is prewrapped and prepackaged, and unless you can afford to shop at a farmer’s market, there is little choice about any of this.”
*Ita you can still get this if you want it, butter still comes in foil paper (you don’t have to buy margarine), water surprising still comes out of our taps, you might even be able to drink it in some parts of the country. If you go to your local butcher you can get your meat wrapped in simple plastic packaging and most supermarkets or even better farmers market will sell individual vegetables. But most people don’t want this, they want convenience and lowest costs, which means the meat is packed in factories and need to last sufficiently long on the shelf to be sold and we want our favourite vegetables at anytime of the year regardless of wither they are in season here or where they are grown.
I’m disappointed that Ita seems to have done little research into the recycle market to understand how it is working in practice. Ita questions what’s so eco-friendly about transporting our rubbish halfway around the world to China or Asia for recycling? The real question she should ask is why this is happening.
The recycling industry works like any other, they sell product (eg. bales of collected waste) to whoever is willing to pay the most for it. For the last few years this has been the Chinese. What’s more the cost of shipping to china is relatively low. With so many products being shipped from China to Europe there are a lot of empty containers going back. The CO2 is being burned anyway shipping these empty containers are we not better off putting something in them to abate the insatiable demand from China for plastic? Believe me I’d prefer for the recycle not to be going to China. I’ve 10 yrs experience of having working with companies trying to source and buy recycled plastic, we’d love it, but the costs are crippling and sometimes make it uneconomical.
To interfere with this market is likely to require significant legal changes to our existing legislation with the government taking more responsibility for the collection programmes in the country. This would potentially face legal action from the major waste management companies who’s business it would impact.
The Waste Packaging Directive places obligations on companies to pay for the recovery and recycling of packaging they produce, use or import. Hence most companies try to keep packaging to a minimum. What they don’t want is products being damaged. How would you feel if your Easter Egg was cracked because someone dropped it when getting it to the shelf. Or do you want your bottle of bleach to burst if it gets dropped on the floor of your kitchen? This is part of the reason why so many drinks have moved to plastic packaging from heavier glass bottles, significantly less wasted products and more of the transported waste is product.
The breweries have spent years looking at moving to plastic packaging for beers. There have been problems not just with the permeation of gases to and from the beer spoiling the taste to problems with the recyclability of the bottles.
It is only in recent years that Erema a plastic recycling machine manufacturer have developed the technology which allows HDPE to be recycled back to a material which is suitable for use back into milk bottles. (The cost of getting material of this quality however is very high)
Ita concludes “there is no real virtue in recycling items that can be reused like glass and no merit in recycling unnecessary packaging that is ultimately shipped abroad. The onus is on the producer and retailer to deliver a 21st century solution.”
I agree the onus is on the producers and retailers to deliver a new solution, however to remove the need for recycling:
- people would need to stop being swayed by design of packaging
- Standard bottles and jars adopted world wide
- sufficient production capacity and product range in Ireland to use up the returned glass containers (e.g how would we reuse wine bottles?)
Currently recycling of plastic packaging, paper, glass and metal have progressed well and our recycling and recovery rates show this. There is a gap, film is a recycling nightmare. The introduction of renewable, compostable films is only making this harder. The materials used, HDPE, LDPE, PVC, EVOH, PET etc are not all easily recyclable together, and can only currently used for low value products of limited market size. In Ireland with it’s high cost of manufacturing these products are at almost uneconomical, if the recycled film waste has to be paid for.
Ireland is developing a multifaceted approach to dealing with it’s waste problem to cope with how we want to live today. It still has work to do, renewable and degradable films might hold the key, but will it be possible to get the vapour and gas barrier properties required to stop foods spoiling. Alternatively we could go back to the daily shop or get bigger freezers.
Ita first questions us what ever happened to bringing bottles back to the shop. There are very simple issues as to why we cannot simply return our bottles and jar’s . From my recollection it was only the drink’s companies which in the past operated the return’s policy. Now a days we have such a wide range of products all in their own packaging that returning them to the shop would be a logistical nightmare especially since so few of these products are now made in Ireland. What we have now is that glass is collected in bottle banks, where it can be safely handled, centrally collected and compacted to minimise shipping costs (and hence fuel consumption and CO2 production.)
Ita reminisces when “butter came in foil paper, water came out of the tap, the butcher wrapped meat in paper and courgettes did not come in a plastic three-pack. Today everything is prewrapped and prepackaged, and unless you can afford to shop at a farmer’s market, there is little choice about any of this.”
*Ita you can still get this if you want it, butter still comes in foil paper (you don’t have to buy margarine), water surprising still comes out of our taps, you might even be able to drink it in some parts of the country. If you go to your local butcher you can get your meat wrapped in simple plastic packaging and most supermarkets or even better farmers market will sell individual vegetables. But most people don’t want this, they want convenience and lowest costs, which means the meat is packed in factories and need to last sufficiently long on the shelf to be sold and we want our favourite vegetables at anytime of the year regardless of wither they are in season here or where they are grown.
I’m disappointed that Ita seems to have done little research into the recycle market to understand how it is working in practice. Ita questions what’s so eco-friendly about transporting our rubbish halfway around the world to China or Asia for recycling? The real question she should ask is why this is happening.
The recycling industry works like any other, they sell product (eg. bales of collected waste) to whoever is willing to pay the most for it. For the last few years this has been the Chinese. What’s more the cost of shipping to china is relatively low. With so many products being shipped from China to Europe there are a lot of empty containers going back. The CO2 is being burned anyway shipping these empty containers are we not better off putting something in them to abate the insatiable demand from China for plastic? Believe me I’d prefer for the recycle not to be going to China. I’ve 10 yrs experience of having working with companies trying to source and buy recycled plastic, we’d love it, but the costs are crippling and sometimes make it uneconomical.
To interfere with this market is likely to require significant legal changes to our existing legislation with the government taking more responsibility for the collection programmes in the country. This would potentially face legal action from the major waste management companies who’s business it would impact.
The Waste Packaging Directive places obligations on companies to pay for the recovery and recycling of packaging they produce, use or import. Hence most companies try to keep packaging to a minimum. What they don’t want is products being damaged. How would you feel if your Easter Egg was cracked because someone dropped it when getting it to the shelf. Or do you want your bottle of bleach to burst if it gets dropped on the floor of your kitchen? This is part of the reason why so many drinks have moved to plastic packaging from heavier glass bottles, significantly less wasted products and more of the transported waste is product.
The breweries have spent years looking at moving to plastic packaging for beers. There have been problems not just with the permeation of gases to and from the beer spoiling the taste to problems with the recyclability of the bottles.
It is only in recent years that Erema a plastic recycling machine manufacturer have developed the technology which allows HDPE to be recycled back to a material which is suitable for use back into milk bottles. (The cost of getting material of this quality however is very high)
Ita concludes “there is no real virtue in recycling items that can be reused like glass and no merit in recycling unnecessary packaging that is ultimately shipped abroad. The onus is on the producer and retailer to deliver a 21st century solution.”
I agree the onus is on the producers and retailers to deliver a new solution, however to remove the need for recycling:
- people would need to stop being swayed by design of packaging
- Standard bottles and jars adopted world wide
- sufficient production capacity and product range in Ireland to use up the returned glass containers (e.g how would we reuse wine bottles?)
Currently recycling of plastic packaging, paper, glass and metal have progressed well and our recycling and recovery rates show this. There is a gap, film is a recycling nightmare. The introduction of renewable, compostable films is only making this harder. The materials used, HDPE, LDPE, PVC, EVOH, PET etc are not all easily recyclable together, and can only currently used for low value products of limited market size. In Ireland with it’s high cost of manufacturing these products are at almost uneconomical, if the recycled film waste has to be paid for.
Ireland is developing a multifaceted approach to dealing with it’s waste problem to cope with how we want to live today. It still has work to do, renewable and degradable films might hold the key, but will it be possible to get the vapour and gas barrier properties required to stop foods spoiling. Alternatively we could go back to the daily shop or get bigger freezers.
Friday, December 4, 2009
Getting Started
I'm going to kick this off with aspirations.
There are several things I intend to write about time permitting. I'm currently job hunting and looking after my daughter most of the week. I'm also doing a post grad and I intend to try and use some of my learning and study from the post grad in what I blog.
I'll also try and pick up on some of the issues that I feel I need to comment on.
Ireland is going through a major change at the moment, it's part way through and reached a crux as perpetuated by the recent crash in the housing and public finances are testiment to.
I believe there is a major change taking place as manufacturing shifts out of the country and the government tries to move us to a SMART high value economy. But where does this leave manufacturing in Ireland?
Recently we've had a glut of major international companies move their manufacturing operations over seas, Dell being one of the most promenant. I think the days of big manufacturing companies in Ireland is at an end. Even mid sized companies are under pressure, they are probably suffering the most in the current climate with little support from a strained banking sector reluctant to take risks.
What is probably going to happen is a growth in smaller companies, producing niche products which are either highly technical or have very short shelf life. Hence the Innovation supplement in Today's Irish Times focused heavily on Nanotechnology and the promenance it is playing in Irish R&D expenditure. The opening of the new Competence Centre in Nanotechnology based in Cork has a remit to do industry lead R&D which will belong with in the competence centre. There are other Competence Centres being planned and some of them will also have Nanotechnology interests.
The other big growth area seems to be in food. Alot of the jobs I see advertised are in Food processing companies. Now maybe there has been a startling number of retirements from this industry or there is still growth in this area. I've seen several advertisments for jobs and I'm finding this particularly fustrating. I'm sure that people find this strange, but I have absolutely no desire to work for a food company, particularly in meat processing. I'm squemish and whilst my good wife is able to put money in her account for me to buy some of that meat I don't feel inclined to make myself sick getting it into the shop. Besides, is this really the kind of high end jobs people are aspiring for when it's not what they love?
I'll try to pick up on these points later on as I try to gear and position myself better in the job market for the coming New Year.
Next time I'll try to take some of Ita Kelly's suggestions for going back on some of the developments in packaging in the Irish Times on the 17th Oct 09.
There are several things I intend to write about time permitting. I'm currently job hunting and looking after my daughter most of the week. I'm also doing a post grad and I intend to try and use some of my learning and study from the post grad in what I blog.
I'll also try and pick up on some of the issues that I feel I need to comment on.
Ireland is going through a major change at the moment, it's part way through and reached a crux as perpetuated by the recent crash in the housing and public finances are testiment to.
I believe there is a major change taking place as manufacturing shifts out of the country and the government tries to move us to a SMART high value economy. But where does this leave manufacturing in Ireland?
Recently we've had a glut of major international companies move their manufacturing operations over seas, Dell being one of the most promenant. I think the days of big manufacturing companies in Ireland is at an end. Even mid sized companies are under pressure, they are probably suffering the most in the current climate with little support from a strained banking sector reluctant to take risks.
What is probably going to happen is a growth in smaller companies, producing niche products which are either highly technical or have very short shelf life. Hence the Innovation supplement in Today's Irish Times focused heavily on Nanotechnology and the promenance it is playing in Irish R&D expenditure. The opening of the new Competence Centre in Nanotechnology based in Cork has a remit to do industry lead R&D which will belong with in the competence centre. There are other Competence Centres being planned and some of them will also have Nanotechnology interests.
The other big growth area seems to be in food. Alot of the jobs I see advertised are in Food processing companies. Now maybe there has been a startling number of retirements from this industry or there is still growth in this area. I've seen several advertisments for jobs and I'm finding this particularly fustrating. I'm sure that people find this strange, but I have absolutely no desire to work for a food company, particularly in meat processing. I'm squemish and whilst my good wife is able to put money in her account for me to buy some of that meat I don't feel inclined to make myself sick getting it into the shop. Besides, is this really the kind of high end jobs people are aspiring for when it's not what they love?
I'll try to pick up on these points later on as I try to gear and position myself better in the job market for the coming New Year.
Next time I'll try to take some of Ita Kelly's suggestions for going back on some of the developments in packaging in the Irish Times on the 17th Oct 09.
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