Eretan Kulon Village, located in Indramayu, West Java, is one of the villages on the coast whose people rely on marine products as their main livelihood. These fish catches are processed and made into processed food products. However, this process is not accompanied by management of processed residues, such as used cooking oil and waste that is produced in large quantities. If they are left unchecked, this condition will damage the environment and pollute the water, which leads to the emergence of various diseases.
To overcome this, the community service team for Village Development of Vocational Education Program, Universitas Indonesia (UI) provided training to 50 Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and residents of Eretan Kulon Village. “This training was conducted to educate and provide understanding to MSME actors and the people of Eretan Kulon Village that waste and used cooking oil can be processed into products that have economic value,” said Dewi Kartika Sari, S.E., Ak., M.S.Ak., CA., as Chairperson of Village Development Community Service Team of Vocational UI.
She further conveyed that the waste management training applies the 3R principles, namely Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. Reduce means that reducing waste can be the first step that needs to be done. This effort prevents the waste from accumulating too much. The way that can be done is to bring a shopping bag that can be used repeatedly.
“Then, Reuse means that using and reusing unused items into new items. Finally, Recycle means recycling waste into new valuable items,” said Ika, the nickname for Dewi Kartika Sari.
In addition, Ika also provided an understanding that used cooking oil can be reprocessed into bar soap, liquid soap, and candles. Processing of used cooking oil does not require high costs, so it is easy for MSME actors and the people of Eretan Kulon Village to apply. Ika also practiced directly the process of making handicrafts from plastic and other materials that are easy to find around Eretan Kulon Village, such as shells in various sizes.
More than just training, on the same occasion, the community service team consisting of 11 Vocational UI lecturers also provided free health services to the people of Eretan Kulon Village in the form of checking blood sugar, cholesterol, uric acid, blood pressure, and height and weight. This is because the prevalence of non-communicable diseases in the region is quite high.
The team also provided a number of equipment to support basic health checks in the form of equipment for checking blood sugar, cholesterol, uric acid, body scales, as well as height gauges to Eretan Kulon Village to support the health check-up process for its residents.
Head of Eretan Kulon Village, Suparmo, welcomed the presence of the community service team from Vocational UI. He said that the community service activities provided many benefits to the residents of Eretan Kulon Village. “We received a lot of new knowledge from Vocational UI team, especially regarding the management of leftover processed fish and fish catches which can be reused. I hope this activity can be conducted continuously and continue to provide benefits to our village,” said Suparmo.
This community service activity is one of a series of folk festival activities as a result of collaboration between lecturers and Student Executive Board of Vocational UI, on October 8 2022. A number of Vocational UI lecturers from various study programs were involved in this community service, namely Ari Nurfikri, SKM, MMR; Radityo Kusumo Santoso, S.I.A, MM; Besty Priyandhini, M.Si; Kuncoro Haryo Pribadi, S.Sos, M.Si; Pijar Suciati, S.Sos, M.Si; Mareta Maulidiyanti, S. Sos, MM; Gunawan Wicaksono, A.Md.OT, SKM, M.Si; Muhammad Hidayat Sahid, A.Md.OT., SKM., M.Epid; Muhammad Ridha, S.Sos, M.Si; and Titis Wahyuni, S.Kom, M.Sc. The festival also included an exhibition of products produced by MSMEs in Eretan Kulon Village.
