Apart from transportation, waste has become one of the biggest causes of pollution in Jakarta, or even Indonesia, whether it is water pollution or air pollution. Several landfills in Jakarta are even reported to be closed in the next 2 years due to their full capacity. Responding to this, three President University students namely Muhammad Haekal Nizar Bahari (Environmental Engineering 2017), Muhammad Argo Wicaksana (Management 2017), and Kevin Mulia Christian (Environmental Engineering 2017) established a business called Olahaja.
Their journey began with the establishment of Bujur.co, a movement that aims to educate people about the importance of protecting the environment through waste management, in 2019. After carrying out their mission online and offline, they developed the idea into a business called Olahaja which was guided by Setsail BizAccel, President University’s business incubator.
This business plan won a 15 million Indonesian Student Management Business Activity (KBMI) grant from the Directorate of Learning and Student Affairs, Directorate General of Higher Education, Ministry of Education and Culture of the Republic of Indonesia.
Olahaja will create Smart Waste Bin, a smart and sophisticated trash bin that will encourage its users to manage waste properly. This effort was made because they realized that the habit of managing waste in Indonesia had not yet been built. For this reason, Olahaja wants to develop smart trash bin with a touchless sensor that is equipped with Internet of Things (IoT) technology so that it can detect the amount of waste that has been disposed of, also how much waste someone discards has been recycled, as well as other information about recycling.
Not only products, but they also develop their business in an integrated waste management sector that can reach households, commercial buildings, and large factories.
One of the students, Muhammad Haekal Nizar Bahari said, “We will strive to develop this product innovatively. Combining it with technology, such as AI or robots, we hope people can be more enthusiastic and have a different experience when managing waste.” They are targeting the beta version of this smart trash can be launched next year. (SL)
Source: https://president.ac.id/p/148-news/detail/805-president-university-students-business-successfull