Seasonal workers’ blog: All roads lead to circular economy

The new summer brought new circular economy heroes to Syklo. Syklo’s waste sorting plant welcomed environmental technology students Emmi-Noora “Emppu” Peltokangas, Verne Stenius and Riina Lindroos, mechanical engineering student Otto Juntunen, and energy technology student Toni Rämö.

Returning for a second stint at the Syklo sorting plant, Peltokangas and Stenius are the veterans of the group. Working as operators the last time around, the two had new duties this summer along with a new helmet colour indicating their new position as summer supervisors. In this role, Peltokangas and Stenius have provided orientation for new summer employees and temped for office workers.

“Over the course of the summer, I have been in charge of sorting plant maintenance. Planning and scheduling weekly maintenance days has been one major area of responsibility. I’ve had a couple of longer maintenance audits during the summer, some of which have involved several contractors. It has allowed me to challenge myself and improve my organisational skills, because plans can change on the fly,” Stenius says.

“In addition to orientation for summer temps working as operators, my duties included material flow management and weighing, inspection of haul data, yard duties, assessing sample analyses, and property-related matters,” Peltokangas says, listing her various duties.

The work is anything but tedious, it seems, and sometimes a surprise assignment or two help liven up a regular day at the plant. Among other things, Peltokangas has been involved in upgrading the Syklo Community mobile app and writing instructions for a variety of purposes.

“I was surprised with how often I was tasked with writing out instructions. I’ve authored all kinds of things from weighing instructions and fire procedures to updated orientation instructions,” Peltokangas says.

No two operator days are alike

On their first day working in circular economy at Syklo, Juntunen, Lindroos and Rämö performed operator duties. An operator’s job involves making sure that production runs smoothly at the sorting plant. Their duties include process control and equipment repair and maintenance during weekly maintenance and during audits. Operators also conduct on-site walks in the process facilities, monitoring equipment condition and ensuring that the process goes smoothly.

“In practice, we monitor cameras and conduct on-site monitoring to see how waste progresses on the processing line and what type of end products can be produced,” says Lindroos, describing how the process is monitored.

Rämö says that the duties are quite versatile and that no two days are alike. In addition to their designated duties, they sometimes find themselves performing other tasks based on their skill level and competence, such as taking over plant management and repairing equipment breakdowns. Lindroos and Rämö both find it fascinating to perform maintenance work on the equipment. The highlight for Rämö was replacing a table on the primary crusher, while Lindroos finds it interesting to see the equipment from the inside during maintenance. Juntunen joined Syklo already in March, getting a head start to his summer job organising the spare parts storage and creating operating instructions as part of his thesis. Looking back, Juntunen recalls a surprising turn of events from early in the summer when a bearing in a magnet seized up in the middle of a night shift, needing a replacement before operations could be resumed.

“However, you don’t need any special blacksmith skills, because your colleagues are always there to give you a helping hand,” says Rämö about equipment repairs.

Taking different paths to the circular economy sector

All five have taken different paths before landing a summer job at Syklo. Peltokangas and Stenius thoroughly enjoyed their operator duties last year and wanted to apply for a job at Syklo the following summer as well. According to Peltokangas, last year was only a scratch in the surface of the highly varied circular economy sector, and she now ‘wanted to dive deeper into it.’

Having previously worked in the steel industry in raw materials reception at a steel factory, Lindroos had already accumulated experience working upstream in the industrial process. But Lindroos couldn’t help but think what it would be like to see the entire raw materials process from beginning to end. The Syklo summer job has provided her the opportunity to acquaint herself with the entire process and see how material recycling helps transform waste into fuel or new raw materials.

Peltokangas, Lindroos and Rämö naturally have one thing in common: they are all equally interested in the circular economy sector. And in the future, the three of them would like to find a job in the energy sector or in circular economy.

“Our love for waste will never fade,” Peltokangas sums up laughing.