This program also gave me a lot of insight into sustainability, and how it is being applied in Belgium, the EU, and the rest of the world. I had already known this, but this program reinforced that many environmental issues are expected to escalate within the next few decades and that we as humans need to start increasing our efforts to move towards more sustainable living. Within Belgium, and the EU, there is a significant amount of work going into transforming their linear economy into a circular economy. Basically, this means that they are trying to reincorporate all of their waste streams back into the economy so that they can reduce their impact on the environment and the amount of raw resources that need to be added into the economy initially. As a chemical engineer, this is probably the most direct way that I could work towards solving environmental issues. Some of the major processes involved in a circular economy are recycling waste products back into their “original” forms, but also processing non-recyclable waste products into something of value. Typical career paths for chemical engineers involve working with/producing plastics and producing fuels. Within a circular economy, chemical engineers can convert plastics that are thrown away into different chemicals that can be used by society or even fuels such as gasoline and diesel. I could also work with biomass to create biocoal, fertilizers, or even biofuel. Overall, this program has really taught me that it IS possible for chemical engineers to work in sustainability.
During this program, I also learned a lot about Belgian culture. Overall, they are very similar to the United States, but there are a few differences that stuck out for me. In general, Belgians seem to have more of a concern for the environment than people in the United States. They recycle more, don’t use plastic bags at grocery stores, and many people have solar panels on their roofs. Belgians also have a different philosophy regarding how the government should work. In the United States, it seems like people have more freedoms to do whatever they want because there are fewer taxes and regulations, but in Belgium, people pay significantly more taxes so that the government can afford to give them so many opportunities that essentially, they are free to do whatever they want.
Overall, I think that there are pros and cons to how the United States runs things versus the EU, but I feel like the United States could learn a lot from the EU regarding sustainability. They have many government programs that make being sustainable more favorable, and I believe the United States needs to start doing this as well before environmental problems come back to bite us in the butt. Then again, I realize that Europeans think differently than Americans, and there has to be a change in our cultural perception of the environment before any real change can occur.
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Chemical Engineering major Harrison Dawson spent the May intersession 2018 in Belgium with our U of A Faculty-Led: Sustainability in the Euro Food System.
Chemical Engineering major Harrison Dawson spent the May intersession 2018 in Belgium with our U of A Faculty-Led: Sustainability in the Euro Food System.
Read more from Harrison at https://sites.uark.edu/hdawson/blog/
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