UNAIR NEWS – Seven students of Environmental Science and Technology undergraduate program, Faculty of Science and Technology (FST), Universitas Airlangga spent and started the new year in the land of cherry blossoms, Japan. They left for Japan in early November, Alif Firmansyah and his friends are students in a solid waste research team led by Nita Citrasari, S.Si., MT, lecturer of FST UNAIR.

After their return from the land of the rising sun, Alif and the team told UNAIR NEWS reasons on the importance of doing an exchange program abroad such as gaining experience and meeting new people, learning Japanese culture and understanding different perspectives on a problem. These things make Alif and the team take full advantage of the opportunity.

“There is an opportunity for an exchange program of the faculty. And alhamdulillah we were selected as a delegation to University of Kitakyushu, Japan, ” he explained.

The next interesting experience was also expressed by Mohamad Naufal Rasyidi. For him, visiting a small island called Umashima was a rewarding experience. The reason, in the small island located in the middle of the sea, there are problems caused by the waste from the flow of sea water. Moreover, Naufal also stated that the admiration for the efforts of Japanese society to maintain the environment should be appreciated.

“It can be seen from the special colored bags in homes. Blue for organic, other color for plastics, and other color for cans, ” he said.

Furthermore, valuable experience also came from Zahra Alandia Zalika. For Zahra the result of various activities that have been done there was very meaningful. The application of low-carbon technologies in the industrial sector to reduce the causes and the amount of pollution becomes a valuable lesson that she brought home.

“We hope what we learned there can be a movement for Indonesia, especially for the improvement of environment,” she concluded.

Author: Hilmi Putra Pradana

Editor: Nuri Hermawan