Green Lantern
Environmental Protection
Cooking oil is widely used by many Malaysian especially for restaurant operators, food manufacturers, and households. However, the used cooking oil, unfortunately, is being dumped into the drain and sewer, creating pollution. Even though there are organizations that collect the waste used cooking oil, most of the households did not have knowledge that used cooking oil can be recycled. Thus, instead of throwing it away, why not change it into something valuable? We come with an idea to change used cooking oil into organic dish soap. Nowadays, a lot of soap brands in the market use 100% chemical ingredients such as ammonia, sulfuric acid, sodium borate, etc., and the price is quite expensive. Therefore, in this project, by mixing the treated waste cooking oil (WCO) with some ingredients such as lemon water, coconut oil, and alkali salt, we believe that numbers of dish soap production can be increased; hence reducing the cost of production. This kind of idea can also provide job opportunities to the community of Nilai which is located near USIM. Most people, especially those who do not have a fixed income may be affected by this pandemic. Therefore, by learning how to make this product, it can also help them to increase their side income,as well as promoting a clean environment. Moreover, we also want to conduct an awareness campaign for the students about environmental protection. Schools have a responsibility towards future leaders - not just teaching them how to read and write, but also educating them about environmental awareness. In addition, we also want to discuss how to recycle the used oil to create a new product, valuable knowledge related to 3R meaning, how to save energy in school or at home, about zero waste, and lots more will be disseminated. High school students are experiencing rising stress levels and lower engagement with learning since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic,Kids feel that “they are more stressed than they were before the pandemic, they have more work, they are less engaged in school, and their relationships with teachers and other kids are strained. Therefore with this project, we can help them to decrease their stress and fill their time by doing something fun and beneficial.
Overview of Issue / Background
Cooking oil is widely used by many Malaysian especially for restaurant operators, food manufacturers, and households. However, the used cooking oil, unfortunately, is being dumped into the drain and sewer, creating pollution. Even though there are organizations that collect the waste used cooking oil, most of the households did not have knowledge that used cooking oil can be recycled.
Thus, instead of throwing it away, why not change it into something valuable? We come with an idea to change used cooking oil into organic dish soap. Nowadays, a lot of soap brands in the market use 100% chemical ingredients such as ammonia, sulfuric acid, sodium borate, etc., and the price is quite expensive. Therefore, in this project, by mixing the treated waste cooking oil (WCO) with some ingredients such as lemon water, coconut oil, and alkali salt, we believe that numbers of dish soap production can be increased; hence reducing the cost of production. This kind of idea can also provide job opportunities to the community of Nilai which is located near USIM. Most people, especially those who do not have a fixed income may be affected by this pandemic. Therefore, by learning how to make this product, it can also help them to increase their side income,as well as promoting a clean environment.
Moreover, we also want to conduct an awareness campaign for the students about environmental protection. Schools have a responsibility towards future leaders - not just teaching them how to read and write, but also educating them about environmental awareness. In addition, we also want to discuss how to recycle the used oil to create a new product, valuable knowledge related to 3R meaning, how to save energy in school or at home, about zero waste, and lots more will be disseminated.
High school students are experiencing rising stress levels and lower engagement with learning since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic,Kids feel that “they are more stressed than they were before the pandemic, they have more work, they are less engaged in school, and their relationships with teachers and other kids are strained. Therefore with this project, we can help them to decrease their stress and fill their time by doing something fun and beneficial.
Project Objectives (Vision & Mission)
The objectives of this project are:
- To give awareness to the community on a clean environment by recycling the WCO.
- To produce the ‘organic dish soap kit’ by using treated WCO with some simple natural ingredients.
- To share the knowledge of making organic dish soap with the school, teacher and the student.
- To spread awareness among students on environmental protection and how to deal with it.
Project Details (Activities and Tasks)
This project is an online event focussing on environmental protection.
There are two (2) main activities for this project:
- Awareness campaign
- Eco-friendly soap making
Phase 1
- Getting advice from the supervisor on the mixing ratio.
- Collaboration with the school to collect the used cooking oil.
- Awareness campaign about the impact of disposing of the WCO.
- Promoting this project to the community near the school.
Phase 2
- Preparing the lab set-up to process the WCO to remove the WCO odor.
- Preparing the workflow of soap making.
- The cleaning of WCOs will be done with guidance from the supervisor.
- Create a video that contains information about 3R awareness and related to it.
- Make 3R and zero waste awareness posters
Phase 3
- Distribution of the organic soaps DIY kit to school.
- Demonstration of soaps making to the school via Zoom platform.
- Channeling the product through social media such as Instagram.
- Sharing the awareness campaign video via YouTube and Instagram.
- Awareness posters are distributed to school
For Environmental Awareness: Save The Earth campaign, we will perform two things which are awareness videos and posters related on how to save the environment and ways to recycle things. The contains will fulfil these objectives:
1.Educate the students about 3R; Reuse, Reduce, and Recycle
- Tutorial on how to manage the waste; segregate the garbage into the correct bins according to its type.
- Knowledge sharing about the type of garbage that can be reused, reduced, and recycled.
- How to manage the organic waste, e.g.: used cooking oil, food waste, etc.
2.Applying the 3R concept and saving the earth in school
- Converting plastic bottles into pots for ornamental plants.
- Reducing the usage of plastics, polystyrene, and straws e.g.: packaging the foods and drinks.
- Switch off the electric appliances if no one uses them.
- Reducing the usage of water. Close the tap water properly.
3.Zero Waste
- Educating the students on how to practice the concept of zero waste in daily life.
- Relate how soap from the used oil can reduce household waste.
- Use glass bottles instead of plastic bottles.
Soap Making Procedure (Appendix B)
We also want to educate students on how to recycle the waste properly and how to create a product from it. Therefore, we came up with an idea to create a product based on wasted cooking oil to produce an eco-friendly dish soap. Students can try to make it on their own, guided by our facilitators.
Instruction:
- Add 100 g of water into a container.
- Add 50 g of alkali salt to the same container and then stir. The alkali salt makes the solution a little bit hot.
- After the solution has cooled down, put 350 g of the used oil and 45g of coconut oil.Then, stir the mixture until fully incorporated to ensure they are distributed evenly.
- When the whole mixture becomes viscous, put 15 ml of order removal agent. Continue stirring the solution. The order removal agent helps to remove the smell of used oil.
- Then, pour the mixture into the mold. Allow them to harden overnight.
What is special about our soap is, it is made from non-hazardous chemicals (eco-friendly & easy to make) and we can customize it. For instance, we can change the flavours, the smells, and its shapes. All can be customized by the students. Those are the differences between our products and others.
Note: Before this product can be used, we will rest it approximately one month in the dark place while waiting until all the reactions are completed and ready to use.
Expected Project Result & Outcomes
The expected results from this project are:
- Secondary school students know how to make dish soap by just using organic waste with some simple non-hazardous chemical ingredients.
- Secondary school students can become entrepreneurs by developing their own organic dish soap kit to get side income.
- Secondary school students can apply the knowledge of making organic dish soap at their homes.
- Using social media such as Instagram will provide the school administration with visual guidance for organic dish soap making.
- Providing awareness to the secondary school students around Nilai related to the importance of a clean environment.
- Help to improve and sustain the ecosystem with the 3R campaign.
0% of RM1.00 Goal
Project Information
| University name | : | Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (Usim) |
| Project leader name | : | Muhammad Ilham Bin Mamauod |
| Facebook link | : | https://www.facebook.com/Green-Lantern-Project-104747365223674 |
| Instagram link | : | https://instagram.com/greenlanternproject |
| Project implementation date | : | 2021-07-01 |
| Location of project held | : | Zoom & Google Meet |
| Beneficiary | : | Secondary school students |
| Number of beneficiaries | : | 500 |
Section I
- Project Goals :
To share the knowledge of making organic dish soap by using treated waste cooking oil with some simple natural ingredients. Besides, this project is to spread awareness among students on environmental protection and how to deal with it.
- Other fund-raising support :
There is no fund-raising support in our project because we are fully sponsored by Khind Starfish Foundation.
- How the project work?
This project we did online through Zoom and Google Meet. There are a total of 500 students from two schools which are SMK KOMPLEKS KLIA and SMK TELOK DATOK that joined our online project. Our first session was an awareness campaign and we did some quizzes after that session, Then we did soap making activities.
- Difficulties :
The difficulties we had was some students couldn't join our session because they rarely used Zoom, so it is a bit difficult for us to make sure they still get what we did in that session. To make sure they are still in our programme, we keep in touch with them through telegram and whatsapp.
- Language or cultural barriers?
There are some language barriers during our awareness campaign with the student from SMK KOMPLEKS KLIA that is being held online. This is because at first, we decided to use a slide in English and explain to the student in Malay during our talk. However, after the event, there are some students who respond that they are having some difficulties understanding the topic in the slide. So, during our second session with the students of SMK TELOK DATOK, we decided to change the language that we use for our slide from English to Malay.
- What worked well? What didn’t work well?
The post-mortem of the first session with the student of SMK KOMPLEKS KLIA shows that students have some difficulties understanding our slide in English. During the second session with students from SMK TELOK DATOK, there is no more response regarding this matter after we change the language of the slide into Malay. We find out that it is much easier for students to understand the content of our talk if we make our slides in Malay instead of English.
The activity that we do with the student event runs smoothly and many students show their interest in making their own soap. This is because each student is provided with their own soap kit. They can really experience how to make soap on their own instead of just hearing the talk from the facilitators and watching the slide. After the event, most students responded that they are having a lot of fun and the soap-making session is really interesting.
G.Beneficial person :
In our opinion, this project has and will continue to benefit many different parts of communities; an awareness and educational programme for students and teachers during this time of pandemic-endemic, the underprivileged as they can use the eco-friendly dishwashing soap as an alternative source of income and save money and most importantly, the community as a whole — they learn to recycle the waste cooking oil that many consider unrecyclable and be more appreciative and cultivate gratitude for the earth.
Long-term impact and sustainability of this project :
We create a lot of posters and videos about our project especially about environmental protection and how to recycle waste cooking oil by sharing a little bit of knowledge in our expertise. Then, we posted it on our sosial media, especially Instagram @greenlantern. Students, especially our targeted students can see the videos. We encourage them to share with all of their friends the knowledge about this program and try to implement it at home because this project is a home friendly project. Then the videos and the posters will be spread to others. This project will spread all over the community. All school students can visit our Instagram to watch the video and infographic about this project anytime and anywhere. We also can make our batch to organize this project in series. Moreover, this project is getting encouraging demand from all the schools around Nilai. So that this is not a one time project because such a project can be continued by our next legacy to contribute more to society.
Section II
(A) How does or will your project contribute to happiness? Short-term? Long-term?
For the short term effect, as we know, during Movement Control Order, most people feel bored because they are just confined in the house with no activity. With this program, participants will be happy because they have the opportunity to prepare their own soap at home. In fact, not only that, the participants also received a kit to make their own soap from a material that is easy to find, namely cooking oil that has been used.
This home friendly program is able to give happiness to not only the participants, but also their parents. In addition, this program can contribute to happiness due to participants having the opportunity to make homemade soap as their source of income.
While for the long term effect, our project will spread happiness through our product which is eco friendly dish soap. We believe that happiness may come as the students can learn new things.They certainly didn’t think that wasted cooking oil that was thought to be useless could be an effective dishwasher.Surely they are also very amazed with the science of chemistry because the discarded oil is able to get rid of the dirt oil that sticks to the plate.This is not a one-time project but a lifetime project because whenever students want to use dish soap they can make their own in the future.
Moreover, they can save their money from buying expensive dishwashing soap out there. They can generate their economy while indirectly applying environmental protection. Studying online at home can also cause stress to students. By providing practical training to students is able to make the learning process more interesting and effective. Students also enjoy doing such activities at home.Experiences like this to some extent can give the most beautiful memories to students in their school time compared to just being stuck at home without doing anything.
Has your project changed the way you think about the world? How has it changed you?
This project is indeed changing the way we think about the world. First, through environmental awareness: The Save the Earth Campaign, we are aware of the importance of the 3R campaign and the concept of zero waste to the world. Through this campaign, we get to know more about how these 3R and zero waste are able to save the world especially from water, air pollution and so on. For example, the zero waste approach conserves natural resources and reduces pollution from extraction, manufacturing and disposal.
Secondly, we are not aware that cooking oil that has been used can give an advantage to our daily life. Usually, we often throw away the cooking oil that has been used. But, through this project, we learnt something new that cooking oil can make soap and it changed the way we think that not all the things that have been used cannot be reused again.
Through this project as well, we realize and are thankful that there are still many people who are aware and interested in getting involved in this campaign. This is because, after we successfully implemented this project with two schools, we got a high demand from other schools that are interested in participating in our project.
B) Quotation from students:
“This programme is excellent and creative” - Nurin Aleesya
“This is satisfying. I hope we can do others activity next time.” - Nur Adriana Batrisyia
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