TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Poverty Watch: Students develop new recycling technology in Tasikmalaya
Craftsmen in Manonjaya, Rajapolah and Cibeureum, Tasikmalaya regency, West Java, have been making mendong (swamp grass) handicrafts since the eighties
Change Size
Craftsmen in Manonjaya, Rajapolah and Cibeureum, Tasikmalaya regency, West Java, have been making mendong (swamp grass) handicrafts since the eighties. The cottage industry became an attractive livelihood, especially after the 1998 economic crisis.
The Tasikmalaya Industrial and Trade Office in Bandung recorded that around 2,300 people and 171 entrepreneurs rely on the mendong industry, supplying a demand for mats, tissue boxes and other designs, which is particularly large overseas.
A staffer from the office, Maman Suparman, said that as the mendong industry gradually prospered its reputation as being environmentally-friendly had unresolved issues.
Maman explained that in order to produce a single mat, 3 kilograms of mendong is needed, of which around 500 grams of ends up as leftover waste.
“Residents simply dispose of the waste because they regard it as matter that can be broken down easily, but there is so much of it that it has piled up and polluted the environment,” Maman said.
Maman added that the habit of dumping or burning mendong waste raises serious concerns.
After examining the piles of waste during a study tour of Manonjaya, Tasikmalaya, a group of students from the Langlabuana University in Bandung expressed concern over the issue. They estimated that each district produces 3 tons of mendong waste.
A lecturer from the University’s technical school, Rosad Ma’ali Hadi, noticed the students’ interest in researching ways to transform the waste into something useful.
Rosad, assisted by a number of students from the technical school, researched the possibilities of turning the waste into something useful.
After they found out that the fiber structure of mendong is similar to that of pineapple and banana stems, which are used to produce boutique paper, a product that is highly sought after thanks to the current “go green” movement, they gathered information from paper craftsmen and manufacturers.
Rosad received a grant of Rp 2 million (about US$180) from his university for initial research
funding.
“We used it for trials to turn mendong waste into fancy paper by using simple equipment,” Rosad said.
Realizing its great potential, the group wanted to equip the communities in Tasikmalaya with the technology. Funding however remained a big obstacle.
“We later joined a competition organized by the Senada-United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through a business innovation funds program, supported by the Economics and Research and Technology ministries,” Rosad said.
Senada-USAID grant technical adviser Herry Kameswara said the simple technology applied by the Langlabuana University students was one of 40 business innovations that received part of a total of $1 million in grants for the development of business innovations in Indonesia.
“A business venture is entitled to $25,000. We see activity carried out by Langlabuana University as a new technology that is beneficial and can provide immediate gains to the community,” Herry said.
