Internship River Plastic Sources

Our Mission to Metrics

In our mission to rid the world’s oceans of plastic, we rely on a thorough understanding of the ocean plastic pollution problem. The research team at The Ocean Cleanup aims to refine our understanding of the sources, transport, and fate of ocean and ocean-bound plastics. An important aspect of our research is to develop a deep understanding of the sources of the problem. For this we categorize and analyze river plastic waste in detail, both to understand consumer and littering behavior, and to map the waste's residency time in the environment and how its composition compares to coastal and offshore waters.

You will be responsible for the preparation and coordination of field missions to collect river waste data from our operational sites in Jamaica, Panama, Guatemala, Indonesia, and Mumbai. Upon the execution of data collection, you will populate and maintain our river sources datasets and work with us to analyze and interpret the findings. Your analysis and comparison of river and beach pollution data will form a meaningful contribution to our impact assessment. Ultimately, the results will be applied to increase our understanding of river’s contributions to ocean pollution, guiding The Ocean Cleanup to improve our impact.

"At The Ocean Cleanup, our scientists work at the forefront of research on plastic pollution in rivers and oceans. The insights you generate will play a key role in improving our cleanup strategies. Join our diverse and international science team to contribute to tackling one of today’s most urgent environmental challenges.", Dr Thomas Mani Lead River Field Scientist.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Coordinating with suppliers and preparing field missions with local collaborators to collect river waste data worldwide.
• Keeping an overview of processes and the incoming data, ensuring quality control and that it is stored and maintained in a systematic and standardized way.
• Connecting and exchanging with the research team on decisions and strategies to optimize our data collection
• Connecting with other teams at The Ocean Cleanup for alignment of your scopes and reducing any overlaps
• Cleaning and standardizing datasets to enable quick and robust analysis
• Conducting data analysis, interpretation, presentation and documenting your work in a report

PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor's degree, pursuing post-graduate science education
• Successful completion of aquatic science courses
• Experience with fieldwork and planning as well as environmental data
• Experience with plastic pollution research is a plus
• Experience in science communication to present our findings
• Skills in interdisciplinary and international communication for planning and correspondence with our research collaborators worldwide
• Fluent in spoken and written English

PERSONAL QUALIFICATIONS

• Be able to quickly get to the essence of a technical challenge, and investigate the most relevant/important aspects to get to a solution direction
• Able to perform well in a fast-paced and challenging environment
• Ability to work independently
• Strong organizational skills
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Intrinsic motivation to work towards our ambitious and meaningful goal

ADDITIONAL DETAILS

• Starting date: July 2025
• Duration: 6 months full-time
• Work permit needed: European Union
• Note that the candidate needs to be enrolled at a University (MSc program) during the duration of the internship
• At The Ocean Cleanup, we believe we are stronger together, while harnessing the uniqueness each individual brings. That is why we take a fair, equal opportunity, and transparent approach to hiring and welcome special needs requests.