Ecobrick module-making training as an EcoProduct development opportunity for economic value in the Engkang-Engkang Community

Organic waste is waste can decompose easily. While inorganic garbage is until yng difficult to unravel, is the garbage produced from non-biological materials either in the form of sintered products and the results of the process of management of mining materials or natural resources and can not be elaborated by Nature, for example, plastic bottles of used beverages, plastic bags, used plastic foods, cans and so on.

Looking at the problem in the neighborhood, the Engkang-Engkang community was born as a form of community awareness to the Sungi and surrounding environment.  The community of Engkang Engkang, founded on 15 July 2011 in Sekemirung 10 Cigadung, Cibeunying Kaler Bandung City, chaired by Pak Agus Kristian Hardiana. Komintas has registered about 160 members of the org. Scattered in various areas in Bandung.

In an effort to reduce waste problems, the community has a large number of activities ranging from clearing the river, garbage collection through the garbage Bank, and use for recycling, agriculture and livestock. Recycling is done producing products such as bags, shopping bags and so forth, using up to a coffee wrap.

Not all plastic waste can be utilized back through the trash Bank. There are some garbage, such as coffee packaging plastic, bread, instant noodles and so forth that many become household garbage but can not be accepted by the garbage bank. During this time the community left using plastic waste that was not accepted by the garbage Bank by recycling into a shopping bag, a place for glassware, tablecloths and so on.  The product has less economical value for its target consumers.

Many ways to recycle plastic. One way is to make the plastic become ecobrick. EcoBricks is the processing of plastic waste into environmentally friendly materials. This is an attempt to reduce the pile of plastic waste. These environmentally friendly materials are made by inserting and compresses the clean and dry plastic bins into a used plastic bottle and using a small stick to compress the plastic waste into the bottle. Ecobrick is an environmentally friendly brick. EcoBrick is made by entering the scrap plastic into the container until it is solid and the bottle becomes hard.

 The process of making the ecobrick so that can be utilized is indeed not a moment. It takes time and no small amount of plastic material. But keep the process to make the challenge. And produce a classy work of art. Thus ecobrick is the art of plastics processing. But to make Ecobrick more economist, it is not enough to make ecobrick. Lecturers and students in the field of Entrepreneurship aims to maximize the potential of garbage around the river Cidurian in the workshop of making EcoBrick modules as one of the opportunities for product development in the community. A simple EcoBrick module can be made into a mini sofa.

The training was conducted in 2 different times. The first on 13 October 2019 was attended by 25 community members with a workshop on making EcoBrick in preparation for the manufacture of modules. The second on November 10, 2019 EcoBrick Module manufacture Workshop was attended by 28 people community members. During training, the community incorporated in community engkang-engkang follow all trainings and workshops given well and has an excellent enthusiastic in responding to the material provided.

Examples of sofas from the EcoBrick module (1)