Community Service - Design of plastic chopped lubricants to become plastic ores from used bottles and cups of mineral drinks - Sukapura Village - Dayeuhkolot District, Bandung Regency
The problem of waste always occurs in the human environment, including plastic waste. The young people in Karang Taruna Sukapura Village, Dayeuhkolot District, Bandung Regency, began to think of utilizing plastic waste in their villages so that these rubbish could be reduced and at the same time provided economic benefits for the surrounding community.
In this community service activity, two teams were formed from the Faculty of Industrial Engineering with the program to provide socialization and training on the process of recycling plastic waste so that it became a product with a higher selling value. One of the teams consisting of Wawan Tripiawan, ST, MT, Dr.Ir. Sinta Aryani, Mais, and Isnaeni Yuli Aini, ST, MT discussed about the processing of plastic waste into something that had more value by recycling the plastic waste. The recycling process of plastic waste starts from the process of enumeration of plastic waste into small chopped so that it will minimize the volume. In the second stage, the plastic chopped will be diluted at high temperatures so that the plastic will melumer and then the melt is processed into plastic ore. Plastic ore can be sold directly or processed alone independently into products ready to sell. Therefore, this recycling process will be able to increase the economic value of plastic waste that is considered not valuable to become a finished product ready to sell with a higher economic value.
Figure 1. Plastic waste recycling process
On June 10, 2021, activities were carried out by the two community service teams for this plastic waste recycling program. Located in a house building in Sukapura Village, the first team conducted a socialization and installation of plastic chopper, while the second team carried out socialization and training on the types of plastic and the process of plastic chopped lubricants to become plastic ore.
In this activity, the team also provided training on how to use a plastic chopper. Training participants are the Youth Youth Organization of Sukapura Village who care about the environment and are interested in waste management. These young men are expected to become superior human resource seeds in Sukapura Village in the field of plastic waste recycling. In this training, each training participant was also asked to try to start the machine independently and conduct trials inserting used plastic cups into the machine to be chopped. During the activity, it was also explained again about what plastic can be put into the chopper. During the trial process, various errors were also found in the process of inserting plastic cups, and the need for a little modification for the chopper machine so that the former fractions were not thrown up.
Figure 2. Socialization and Training of Plastic Waste Recycling Machines
In the future, this program is expected to continue with the procurement of plastic chopped lubricants. At present, the procurement of the lubricant machine cannot be done due to limited funds. For the long run, it is hoped that this program can become a forerunner to the construction of a plastic waste recycling business with adequate resources and a strong supporting system from the community and the village government so that it can help reduce the problem of waste and the environment in the Sukapura Village area.
By: Isnaeni Yuli Aini, ST, MT