IPB Students Make Hand Sanitizer from Shrimps Shells and Wins 2nd place in KTI
Three students of Bogor Agricultural University (IPB) won second place in the Scientific Writing Competition (LKTI) PSP SCIPERTION (Sciencetific Paper Competition) at Hasanudin University, Makassar. The event which took the theme "The Contribution of Youth in Supporting the National Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Action Plan to Create an Independent Fisheries Sector" took place last September.
They are Dwi Puspita Ria, Bunga Mega Aprilia, and Ayi Warmia, three students from the Department of Fisheries Resource Utilization (PSP), Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Sciences (FPIK). They managed to utilize shrimp shells as the material to make hand sanitizer.
The idea starts from realizing that ordinary hand sanitizers are made from alcohol and has side effects. From that reason, comes the idea of hand sanitizer liquid made from shrimp shell waste which has many advantages over existing ones.
"The scientific writing that we wrote is about health and the environment. Then, we chose hand sanitizer liquid from shrimp shell waste as the topic. Why did we choose hand sanitizer? Because hand sanitizers that are in the market are made of alcohol, it still has many flaws and also has side effects. Whereas if we use shrimp shells, it is healthier and no side effects," Dwi Puspita Ria said.
According to Dwi, the shrimp shell waste hand sanitizer is intended for the general public, but more specifically for coastal communities who are relatively still low in health quality. In addition, other reasons aimed at coastal communities are materials that are easy to obtain and ways of making that are relatively easy and applicable to be made on a household scale.
"This hand sanitizer is actually intended for the general public, but more specifically for coastal communities. Because we know that coastal communities do not know anti-septic and have lower health qua;ity. In addition we also think about what they can make. And seeing the resources is easy to get because all types of shrimp skin can be used and hand sanitizers are easy to make," Dwi said.
In the future, Dwi hopes that this hand sanitizer can help the health quality of coastal communities, reduce waste of shrimp shells and help the economy of the community.
"Hopefully, this hand sanitizer can help maintain the health of coastal communities and utilize the waste of shrimp shells and can move housewives to make this product which will later be able to help their husbands in terms of economy and be a potential as micro, small and Middle Businesses (UMKM)," Dwi added.
The event was attended by 14 teams from the ten best campuses in Indonesia. On the last day of the competition, the finalists conducted a love sea declaration on Losari Beach to increase awareness of how important it is to protect the sea, then they were also invited to several tourist attractions in the city of Makassar. (Ath / Zul)
