re.book

Where sharing books meet sustainable development

Comment

Inspiration

“There is no such thing as ‘away’. When we throw anything away it must go somewhere.”

– Annie Leonard, Proponent of Sustainability Currently, humans are consuming the largest amount of paper in history. In the last 40 years, there has been an increase of 400 per cent. The paper industry is a significant contributor to deforestation, with about 4 billion trees cut down annually for paper production. Recycling one ton of paper saves about 17 trees, 7,000 gallons of water, 3 cubic yards of landfill space, and 4,100 kilowatts of energy. A single book exchanged multiple times reduces the demand for new book production and the associated carbon footprint. For every book exchanged, the potential savings of paper, energy, and emissions can be substantial.

And for that reason we made Re. Book where book exchange meets sustainable development in the most exciting way possible! Being a part of something bigger, something sustainable, is truly inspiring.

What it does

Our project, RE.Book. It's like swapping secrets with a friend which promotes sustainable development. Now, you might wonder, 'How does this connect to a better India?' Every time a book finds a new reader, we're not just spreading knowledge, we're saving trees! Each exchange means fewer books gathering dust and more minds coming alive. Our project promotes reusability by sharing or exchanging their old books and in return, they will get redeemable credits. Here book owner can list their old/new books and when their book get transferred to someone who is interested the buyer has to pay some credits for the same though this feature is not working, our project also promotes Access to books promotes education, which is a key factor in breaking the cycle of poverty and driving economic development. Studies show that access to reading materials can significantly improve literacy rates and educational outcomes.

How we built it

React.js: Frontend library for building user interfaces. TailwindCSS: Frontend Css framework. React Router: Handling navigation and routing within the app. express: to handle the backend server and http requests. postman: to handle and test data using get, post and put methods. MongoDB: Backend-as-a-Service for user authentication and database storage. Axios: Making API requests to retrieve book data.

Challenges we ran into

As a hackathon newbies, the process of Integrating the backend with the frontend posed a lot of difficulties.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Very proud of creating a platform that encourages sustainable practices specifically in the student community which is often hard to target.

What we learned

We learned a lot as we create something that will contribute to the betterment of India, as we had done a lot of research about the wastage of paper and a lot more.

What's next for re.book

  1. We will be building a community
  2. Connecting recycling plants in the platform for a sustainable solution of waste paper.
  3. Audio features for old age people
  4. Credit system for users for exchanging books.
Share this project:

Updates