Used Cooking Oil Soap-Making Training to Strengthen Community Environmental Awareness in the Pangandaran Tourism Area

This study examines how used cooking oil soap-making training addresses gaps between environmental attitudes, knowledge, and practical experience among culinary vendors in the Pangandaran tourism area. A descriptive-evaluative community-service design combined pre- and post-training questionnaires with observation, discussion, and documentation; the Knowledge–Attitude–Practice (KAP) framework guided interpretation. Before training, 21% of participants knew that used cooking oil could be converted into soap, whereas 100% reported this knowledge immediately afterward, a descriptive increase of 79 percentage points. Positive views about oil utilization and willingness to make soap were already reported by all participants before training and remained unchanged. All participants took part in supervised group practice, but independent technical competence and sustained waste-management behaviour were not assessed. The contribution is a context-sensitive, KAP-informed community empowerment pathway linking tourism-related waste, existing motivation, and an initial practical capability. Reductions in waste disposal, product safety, and financial benefits remain potential outcomes requiring quality testing and longitudinal evaluation.