Living in the villages of Aceh in Indonesia, we villagers must be able to economize the costs expended by household in day-to-day activities. Because there are so many raw materials wasted, it is important to find new ways to use spare materials to use for household work. In this modern era it is important to reduce the waste of good materials so money can be used for more important things like education, which can help our children be more successful in life.

In our simplistic culture we try to take advantage of many commodities that can be obtained from coconut trees: coconuts, stems, leaves, branches, etc. Old coconut trees can be used as building materials. For example, we build a simple house with wood from the trunk of coconut trees. A wood house frame will be sturdy and more cost efficient than buying a steel frame. The rest of the tree can be used as firewood. An old coconut tree trunk can also be used in the construction of emergency bridges, boat skeletons, and so on.

Coconut tree branches and leaves have a variety of uses. One creative idea is using coconut leaves for decorations. They are useful leaves and can be used for crafts. Branches are also great building materials and are used on the roofs of houses. Coconut bone leaves are used to make traditional broomsticks to sweep the yard and house everyday.

Coconuts are an important element to many meals in Aceh. Coconut meat is the most important part of the coconut tree and a large commodity. Older coconut meat is processed into grated coconut, coconut milk, cooking oil, and other kitchen materials. Coconut meat is used everyday in our households as a spice and as cooking ingredients.

Young coconut meat can be used in the manufacturing of wet cakes produced by the home industry that markets its products to be sold in stores. Young coconut water can also be utilized as a raw material in the manufacture of soy sauce and sweet soy sauce.
Coconut trees are an extremely important resource in Aceh. Every single part of the tree is useful in some way. Raw materials like coconut trees are useful and should not be wasted. People find a wide variety of uses for coconut trees to satisfy numerous needs people have in different avenues of life.

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@agrojaya