MALANG – The Covid-19 pandemic has demanded that people always maintain personal hygiene, namely by diligently cleaning their hands using soap and cleaning liquids such as hand sanitizers. Hand sanitizers have become the main alternative for people when they are outside the home or in conditions where it is not possible to wash their hands with soap and water.
However, the use of hand sanitizers in the long term is known to cause skin reactions in the form of dry and irritated skin. These side effects certainly need to be minimized. People need hand sanitizers from natural ingredients that are safe and do not cause irritation, but are still effective at killing germs.
Such conditions encouraged Daffa’ Rizal Dzulfaqaar Alauddin along with Tiara Novia Sangrawati, Eka Nurkhayati, Thoriq Aziz, and Aulia Qisti to create an innovation that answers the problems and needs of the community in the pandemic era. They succeeded in utilizing bagasse waste into an environmentally friendly hand sanitizer product.
The five students who are members of the PKM-K Team, State University of Malang see business opportunities from bagasse waste that are not used optimally. Each year, bagasse waste produced by sugar cane factories reaches tens of millions of tons. About 50% of the bagasse produced is used as fuel for sugar factory boilers and the rest is stockpiled as waste with low economic value. This makes bagasse become the best choice as raw material for bioethanol because of its low cost and abundant availability.
“We see Malang as a city with two large sugar factories, namely the Kebonagung sugar factory and the Krebet Baru sugar factory. Each year, these two factories produce a large amount of bagasse waste. We must use this opportunity to produce an innovation in the form of a product that is not only used as waste management, but also answers the challenges or market needs in this pandemic era,” said Daffa as team leader.
Daffa and the team guided by Ms. Daratu Eviana Kusuma Putri, S.Si., M.Sc. This company has carried out the production process starting in June 2021 at the Chemistry Laboratory of the State University of Malang. In addition to production using natural basic ingredients, namely bagasse, Daffa also explained that there are many other advantages of this product called “Hydroma”.
“The basic ingredients we use are natural, so they can reduce the risk of irritation and other side effects on the skin due to the use of hand sanitizers. Hydroma can be used by all people, from children to adults. We also design Hydroma packaging as attractive as possible, with various packaging variations. Of course, with low production costs, the price is quite economical,” he explained.
Hydroma products have a “Create Your Reminders!” feature. and “Refill My Hydroma” on the official hydroma website, namely hydroma.id. Daffa and the team have also created social media accounts in the form of Instagram, namely @hydroma.organic and several market places for product marketing. In the future, they hope that this product can be accepted and used by the wider community.
