TerraCycle Intern Spotlight:
Brandon Byrne – Seton Hall University Class of 2021
I’m Brandon Byrne, and I’m entering my senior year as a finance and marketing major at Seton Hall University. However, this past summer, I interned in the Marketing department at TerraCycle.
I first learned of TerraCycle in high school. Teachers would collect items for some of their recycling programs. So this spring, while applying to internships, I was excited to learn they were looking for summer interns. I was so nervous at my interview (which I thought I completely bombed), but they called me back and wanted me to join the summer program! I was going to intern at TerraCycle.
Okay, now for the fun stuff: let’s talk about my internship. From my start in June, I have taken part in many projects that introduced me to business concepts in the real world. As a marketing intern, one of the main projects that I worked on was creating the content calendar, which is a library we used to make the social media posts.
The most interesting project I worked on involved several analyses of the Cigarette Waste Recycling Program, where I analyzed metrics, including the impacts COVID-19 presented on collections. I learned a lot about how a marketing department works, how to develop content, how they interact with other departments, and what tools they use to accomplish tasks.
To me, it was fascinating to learn how the recycling industry works. Before this experience, it never occurred to me what happened to our recyclables after they were collected. Through several projects and research performed during my time as an intern, I learned a lot about sustainability and recycling.
Did you know it takes just 60 days for an aluminum can to be recycled and end up on a store shelf again? Learning about this has made me implement some sustainable habits in my life. For example, I started collecting for a few of TerraCycle’s National Recycling Programs, and just sent in my first shipment!
I started being more conscious of wish-cycling and strive only recycle what is accepted through my municipality. It might not be much, but it’s the small changes that lead to a bigger impact, especially when we do it together!
If you’re in college and looking for an internship, I strongly encourage you to apply at TerraCycle. They offer internships in all of their departments, so you’ll be able to find one that fits your major and interests.
Working at a growing company was great because I was able to work on projects for multiple departments. It has been so rewarding for me. I know I am making a difference, not only in the company but in the environment.
My biggest piece of advice I can give to future interns is to have faith in yourself. Coming into the internship, I was so scared that I knew nothing, and I was going to make a huge fool of myself. Within the first couple of days, I found my footing. I knew my tasks and how to accomplish them.
Another piece of advice is to ask for projects that interest you. At the beginning of my internship, I worked on a few projects that were really valuable to me for getting exposure and experience but weren’t necessarily “scratching the itch,” as they say. I was able to ask my supervisor if there were any projects involving data analysis, and there were! They became some of my favorite projects I was able to work on.
The last piece of advice I have is to have fun and learn as much as you can! Make your internship as valuable for you as possible. You will get out of it however much you want to get out of it, so go for that extra project, do a little extra research, it will only make you more valuable in the future.
We’ve wrapped up our first virtual internship program and we’re excited to share we’re preparing to kick off another!
Interested in joining us? Check-out full-time and internship positions at Loop & TerraCycle for the fall HERE.