EcoCandle: UNM Students Innovate Aromatherapy Candles from Used Cooking Oil

Students from the Digital Business Study Programme at Universitas Nusa Mandiri (UNM), a Digital Business Campus, are demonstrating innovation in entrepreneurship through the Student Creativity Programme for Entrepreneurship (PKM-K). Through the EcoCandle project, they have developed an aromatherapy candle product based on used cooking oil as an environmentally friendly and economically valuable solution. As part of the product development process, the EcoCandle PKM-K Team conducted experimentation and filtration stages on the used cooking oil to produce a cleaner, safer, and suitable raw material for aromatherapy candle production. This stage is a crucial step to ensure product quality before marketing to the public. The EcoCandle team is chaired by Nabila Putri Aulia, with members Aliyah Dwi Puspita, Nurrohmah Wati, and Athirah Arumi. This innovation was born from the students’ concern for household waste problems and their spirit to build a sustainable entrepreneurial product. In the process, the collected used cooking oil first goes through a filtering stage to remove impurities and residual particles from use. After the filtration process is complete, the oil is then tested as a base material for making aromatherapy candles, combined with other supporting materials to produce a higher quality product that is safe to use and competitive in the market. EcoCandle PKM-K Team Chair Nabila Putri Aulia explained that the filtration process is one of the most crucial stages in producing a quality product. ‘We want to ensure that the used cooking oil we use truly goes through an optimal filtration process so that it can produce the best quality aromatherapy candles. Through EcoCandle, we not only want to create a product with economic value but also invite the public to see that household waste like used cooking oil still has great potential if managed creatively and sustainably,’ said Nabila. According to her, EcoCandle is an implementation of the circular economy concept, transforming waste into value-added products that can reduce environmental pollution while opening new business opportunities based on eco-friendly innovation. Meanwhile, PKM-K EcoCandle Supervising Lecturer Johan Hendri Prasetyo emphasised that the experimentation process is an important part of creating a competitive entrepreneurial product. ‘In the Student Creativity Programme for Entrepreneurship, students are not only required to have interesting business ideas but also to be able to produce quality products through systematic research and testing. The filtration stage carried out by the EcoCandle team demonstrates the students’ seriousness in presenting a safe product with added value, as well as a solution to the problem of used cooking oil waste in society,’ said Johan. He hopes that the innovations developed by the students will not stop at the PKM competition but will grow into a sustainable business and provide real benefits to the community. Through EcoCandle, students of the Digital Business Study Programme at UNM as a Digital Business Campus prove that innovation can arise from simple problems around us. The utilisation of used cooking oil into aromatherapy candles not only creates new business opportunities but also encourages the public to care more about household waste management and the adoption of a sustainable lifestyle.