PALMOILMAGAZINE, KAMPAR – “Sumatra, a key palm oil-producing island in Indonesia, grapples with the challenge of accumulating unused palm oil waste, leading to increased air pollution and environmental concerns.
In response, SMKN 1 Tapung Hulu, located in the Kampar District of Riau Province, within the Plantation Plant Agribusiness sector, has introduced an innovative solution by transforming palm oil waste into high-quality compost.
Feby Andini, a teacher specializing in Plantation Plant Agribusiness at SMKN 1 Tapung Hulu, highlighted that the vicinity of the school is surrounded by seven palm oil industries generating untreated waste.
Also Read: SMKN 1 Tapung Hulu Utilizes Palm Oil Empty Bunches to Produce Crispy Mushrooms
Recognizing the potential, students at SMKN 1 Tapung Hulu have embarked on a creative initiative to convert these wastes into a high-quality product known as ‘Peltas.’ This initiative aims to address both the environmental issues caused by the accumulation of palm oil waste and the production of a valuable compost product.
“We just want to change something useless to be high quality product to sell so that the people would get the advantages namely those who work as farmers or smallholders,” Feby said, as Palmoilmagazine.com quoted from the official page of General Directorate of Vocation.
Also Read:
Every day, the students gathered the wastes to be processed at their school. The materials used to process Peltasa compost is easy to get, such as, midrib, banana tree, brand, dolomite, and molasses.
The wastes should be cut off into pieces at 1—3 cm, then they are mixed with bran, dolomite, molasses for about 24 hours before they are mixed in 21 days in phase to make sure that the composition would be perfect.
Rafiansyah, the student of XI grade in Plantation Plant Agribusiness told that after the decomposition process is done, the compost is packed with label SMKN 1 Tapung Hulu. The product is sold to the people and put in agriculture stores in economic price. It starts from thousand rupiah.
Also Read:
“Before we sell it, Peltasa compost was getting laboratory test in the first place to confirm the substance in it. After passing the tests, we sell it,” Rafiansyah said.
SMKN 1 Tapung Hulu is developing the products to be distributed in wider scae. “It is time that we should back to organic agriculture by using organic fertilizer, Peltasa SMKN 1 Tapung Hulu,” Feby said. (T2)
