Environmental Engineering Student Association Celebrates Environment Day by Making Organic Waste Processing Sites on Campus

On Saturday, June 4, 2022, coinciding with World Environment Day, the Environmental Engineering Student Association and Environmental Engineering Study Program, Faculty of Engineering, Udayana University, held a clean-up and construction of organic waste processing sites on campus. This activity was carried out in the Civil Engineering Study Program campus area, Faculty of Engineering, which is also the location of the lecture and administration building for the Environmental Engineering Study Program. The activity, which was attended by the Study Program Coordinator, Lecturers and students, started with a clean-up activity to collect organic and inorganic waste around the campus. The waste is then collected and placed in a different place. For inorganic waste, only collection is carried out, while for organic waste, it is processed into compost.

 

On this occasion, students and lecturers made a place for processing organic waste into compost using concrete buis. After the concrete bucket is completely filled with organic waste, including dry leaf waste, flower and leaf waste from the canang ceremony facilities and food waste such as fruit, compost is added which already contains microorganisms that decompose organic waste. In addition, water is added with the aim of maintaining humidity which is a factor that affects the decomposition of waste. The last step is to seal the concrete buis tightly, then let it sit for about 3 months until it becomes compost and can be used.

 

There are three concrete buckets that are used as a place for processing organic waste into compost. Each trash can has a diameter of 60 cm. To increase the creativity of students, HMTL and the Environmental Engineering Study Program provide opportunities for students to be creative in the organic waste processing site by making mural art on the outside of the concrete bus so that it looks aesthetic. In the future, there will be a signboard or guidelines for the processing of organic waste, so that it can be carried out by the entire campus community. The processed compost will later be used to fertilize plants around the campus area.

 

Coordinator of Environmental Engineering Study Program, Ir. Kadek Diana Harmayani, ST, MT, Ph.D. conveyed, "We should start with activities like this in our own scope first, making our environment clean first before we implement it to a wider area". He also expressed his frustration and appreciation for the activeness of students in cleaning and processing waste in the campus environment itself.

 

World Environment Day is observed every year as an effort to build our awareness about the condition of our environment which is getting more and more problematic by the day. One of the environmental issues that occurs in almost all parts of the world including Indonesia today is the waste problem, where the volume of waste continues to increase and there is still a lack of waste that can be processed properly. Through this commemoration, it is hoped that Unud students as a whole, not only students of the Environmental Engineering Study Program, can have a higher awareness of caring for and protecting the environment so that it can continue to be sustainable so that it can be passed on to the next generation.