Sinem Şevval Akdoğan and Nida Nur Tanrıöver
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Our project was to take olive pomace oil, which is considered as waste in olive oil production, and make it functional. We first thought about how it could be used in various areas. One of the things people use the most is soap. We aimed to obtain a product that is both natural and recycled by using olive pomace oil in soap production. We selected women between the ages of 25-45 to contribute to women’s employment in the production of these products.
We aim to promote the economic empowerment of the women involved in the activities by providing them with knowledge and trying out the experiences of soap making and promoting environmentally sustainable solutions to the olive production processes. We managed in the initial phase by left over olive pomace through recycling from the olive oil production. We used the leftover olice pomace to make soap. We chose this material for soap production since olive oil producers considered it unusable and dumped it into the environment. Naturally, this issue affects nature badly since it also causes soil pollution.
Our was designed with two themes: environmental sustainability and women’s economic empowerment. One of the core objectives was to enhance the functionality of olive pomace oil, a by-product of olive oil production typically regarded as waste. By transforming this underutilized raw material into a valuable resource, we aimed to minimize waste output and reduce the environmental burden associated with olive oil production. This approach also emphasized improving resource efficiency and advancing sustainable practices within the agricultural sector.
At the same time, we focused on social impact by fostering inclusive employment opportunities. It sought to engage women in the production process through targeted training and capacity-building initiatives in areas such as processing and packaging. By equipping women with technical skills and developing scalable business models based on reuse and recycling, the project aimed to create new market opportunities and sustainable revenue streams for the women with low economic resources.
Before starting the soap production, we used our social media accounts to make local people aware of our project. Then, we decided on the budget to be used in the production process as well as where we could get the most suitable materials we can obtain according to our budget. After that, we procured the materials, and at this stage, we established our own criteria for recruiting participants. Following this step, we opened applications for people who wanted to be participated in this project. We created a Google Form to select our participants and stated our criteria in the post beforehand. Our criteria included housewives between the ages of 25–45.
We made a general project introduction with the participants we selected via Zoom. Afterwards, we determined a day and held a soap-making workshop. We produced our soaps here. A few days later we moved on to the wrapping stage and we packaged or soaps. Eventually, we tried to find local investors. We had interviews and meetings with local soap markets and investors. Currently, we are waiting responses from the investors and possible funding organizations to continue our idea.
