Today marked the last time on the trip that I would wake up in the great city of Amsterdam. The five days that I spent in Amsterdam are five days to remember for the rest of my life. I learned so much about a foreign culture, made memories that will last a lifetime, and made several new friends. I will always be appreciative of my time in Amsterdam!

After checking out of the hotel, we got on a bus with all of our luggage en route to Nouryon–a leading chemical manufacturer that specializes in organic peroxides and metal alkyls. Upon arriving at their site, we were informed of how Nouryon fits into the polymer-making process and their research into making their peroxides as safe and sustainable as possible. Nouryon is dedicated to making sure their peroxides are made up of the safest materials for both the consumers and the chemists who create the peroxides. They have an entire blast chamber dedicated to testing the pressure and temperatures that their peroxides can withstand before spontaneously combusting.

On the other hand, Nouryon also spends a lot of energy on making its products as sustainable as possible. They test the toxicity of their materials on different stages of organisms, ranging from algae to bacteria to small fish. They would expose these organisms to different materials and would observe how the organisms performed with the varying toxicity. If more organisms died, the material could be deemed more toxic and probably not very safe to introduce. They also have another lab dedicated to testing how possible it would be for different materials to biodegrade in nature to match the regulations that the European Union sets on this matter.

After leaving Nouryon, we departed for Rotterdam! After a very long trip with a lot of traffic, we were finally able to settle down at our new hotel and are currently awaiting everything this city has to offer!