Pemanfaatan Minyak Jelantah Menjadi Lilin Aromaterapi di Desa Kutagugung

Abstract

Used cooking oil is a household waste that can be utilized through community-based processing. This activity aimed to improve community knowledge and practical skills in processing used cooking oil into aromatherapy candles. The activity used the Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) method through five stages: Discovery, Dream, Design, Define, and Destiny. The participants were 20 members of PKK and Karang Taruna in Kutagugung Village. The technical practice used 250 g used cooking oil, 250 g paraffin (1:1), 25 g bleaching earth (10% of the used cooking oil mass), essential oil, and crayon coloring. Initial purification consisted of cloth filtration, mixing with bleaching earth, 24-hour settling, and filtration to separate the sediment. The activity produced aromatherapy candles and provided direct experience in waste utilization. A preliminary waste-potential estimate, derived from published household consumption benchmarks and village population data, indicates that Kutagugung may generate approximately 553.6 L of used cooking oil per month, or 18.5 L per day; this is an estimate and not a direct village measurement. Because numerical pre-test and post-test data were not collected during the documented activity, improvement in knowledge is reported qualitatively rather than as a fabricated percentage. The activity demonstrates that used cooking oil can be developed as a local environmental asset through community participation.