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Abdi Karya designs a 3R-based laundry waste treatment installation

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IO, Surabaya – The proliferation of small-scale laundry enterprises also tends to produce hazardous waste that can pollute the environment. Addressing these problems, the Abdi Karya team from the Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology (ITS), Surabaya, designed a wastewater treatment plant (IPAL) for reuse, recycle, and recovery (3R) for commercial laundries. 

According to Abdi Karya team leader Cindy Synthia Putri, many laundry businesses currently do not have IPAL. Laundry waste water tends to be drained away without being treated first. “This waste contains a variety of dangerous substances, a mixture of detergent and dirt on clothes,” explained Cindy, in a release received by the Independent Observer, Wednesday (7/10/2020). 

The hazardous content of the waste includes Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Total Suspended Solids (TSS), and phosphates. High BOD and COD values can cause a deficit of dissolved oxygen in water, while TSS can cloud water and block sunlight from entering. “Another compound, namely phosphate, can degrade the life of aquatic biota and increase nutrients,” said the student of the Department of Environmental Engineering. 

She said a small-scale laundry requires a processing unit that can reduce the risk of environmental pollution. The IPAL designed by the Abdi Karya team is portable, besides being of a size that matches the willingness of a small-scale laundry room. “So it won’t take up much space,” said this 2016 class student. 

More deeply, Cindy explained that the waste from this processing unit will be collected first in a tank. Afterwards, the waste will be filtered, using river sand through the sand filter process. Then, the processed water will pass twice through the activated carbon adsorption process, using coconut shell adsorbents. “Finally, the treated waste will be clean and can be collected in a water reservoir.” 

According to Cindy, IPAL is getting better thanks to the implementation of 3R. The principle of recycling can be seen in treated water which can be reused for watering hydroponic plants, washing vehicles, and can also be re-flowed to the processing unit. Besides, river sand that has started to get dirty due to the filtering process can be reused after washing it with clean water. “The saturated adsorbent as a byproduct can be used (recovered) as fertilizer,” she said. 

Apart from Cindy, members of the Abdi Karya team include Nabila Putri R, Nandalita Alifia and Oktsyavitto Adhitya from the Environmental Engineering Department; Vaneti Kyash L. and Wahid Ramadhan S. from the Department of Architecture; and Ifarrel Rachmanda H. from the Civil Engineering Department. “The seven of us managed to collaborate and put our ideas into concrete designs,” said Cindy proudly. 

Their hard work has brought achievements. The IPAL designed by the Abdi Karya team won the first place in the Laundry and Batik category in the 2020 IPAL Innovation Design competition. In this competition, held by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Abdi Karya outperformed 68 teams from national and foreign universities. 

In the future, the team guided by Arseto Yekti Bagastyo, Welly Herumurti, and Ervin Nurhayati hopes that their designs will not only be presented in competitions. Cindy hopes that the innovation they have initiated can be further developed so that the laundry businesses can use it more and more. “I hope that the impact of this waste pollution can be overcome with our IPAL,” she said. (est) 

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