Starting from the concern of a team of lecturers from the Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Sciences (FPIK) UB regarding the presence of rubbish on Kondang Merak Beach, the idea arose to submit a proposal for Community Service with the title Application of Circular Economy Concepts in Waste Management to Support the Green Economy in Kondangmerak Fishing Village , Malang Regency. The preparation of the proposal was chaired by a lecturer from the Marine Science Study Program, namely Fahreza Okta Setyawan, S.Kel, M.T., with team members consisting of two lecturers from Marine Science and Fisheries Resource Utilization Study Program, namely Defri Yona, S.Pi., M.Sc. Stud., D.Sc and Muhammad Arif Rahman, S.Pi., M.App.Sc. In the mid of 2023, this service proposal received funding from the Directorate of Research, Technology and Community Service, Directorate General of Higher Education, Research and Technology, Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology for Fiscal Year 2023.
This Community Service activity includes several activities including student involvement in interacting with the community, then outreach and workshops related to waste management and waste utilization as well as providing special trash cans to accommodate plastic bottles. The two students involved played an active role in the service process for approximately 2 weeks with the community in Kondangmerak fishing village.
Activities carried out by students and the community are generally oriented towards the daily activities of partners and beach managers. While they are with the community, students have the opportunity to see and identify the types of waste that exist, hold discussions related to waste management, and get ideas for the design of trash cans that will be given as part of community service activities.
Students are directly involved in beach cleaning and waste handling that has been carried out by beach managers so far. In addition, they also took part in decorating the village as part of a series of programs initiated by PLN.
Furthermore, to support the series of activities carried out, Aditya and Vivi Sofiana from “ZERO WASTE Malang” community were invited to be workshop presenters in the community service program in the fishing village.
The activity of delivering material and direct practice in making used cooking oil into candles was enthusiastically attended by service partners, including the community of fishermen’s association women (Mina Jaya Mandiri) and beach management men. One of the important agendas in this activity is the provision of rubbish bins which have been specially designed as containers for disposing of plastic bottles with the aim of encouraging visitors to dispose of their waste bottles in their proper place. If plastic bottle waste is thrown away where it should be, it will make it easier for the community and beach managers to collect plastic waste so that it can be reused or sold.
The chief organizer of the activity, Fahreza Okta Setyawan, said that the series of community service activities carried out in September – October 2023 in the Fishing Village, Kondangmerak, is expected to help the local community to manage waste and utilize waste into goods that are economical and have selling value.
“If rubbish and waste management is carried out regularly and becomes a routine agenda, it can improve the economic factors of the community in the fishing village itself because apart from having a beautiful beach and delicious culinary delights, it also has a clean beach,” said Fahreza Setyawan [DFR/OKY/ UB PR/ Trans. Iir]
