Inspiration
In New York alone, $125 million in bottle deposits go unclaimed every year. Not because people don't care — because returning bottles costs more in time than the nickel is worth. The system is 40 years old. The cost of being green has been placed entirely on the consumer's time, with almost no reward. I wanted to fix the friction without waiting for policy to change.
What it does
Bottle-it scans bottle barcodes instantly, tells you if your bottle is redeemable in your state, how much it's worth, and tracks your total earnings over time. Every session logs your items, earnings, and material breakdown. When your balance builds up visibly, you make the trip.
How we built it
Built solo in 24 hours using React Native and Tailwind CSS (via NativeWind) for the frontend. Open Food Facts API handles barcode lookups — free, no key, 3 million products. Gemini API acts as an intelligence layer for bottles not in our deposit database, analyzing product data to predict redeemability. Google Maps API powers the live location finder for nearby redemption centers. No custom backend — all API calls happen client-side, keeping the architecture simple and shippable under time pressure.
Challenges we ran into
The biggest challenge was scope. There's no public API that combines barcode data with state deposit rules — that logic doesn't exist anywhere, so I had to build it myself. Keeping the scanner fast and stable while updating the earnings counter in real time took more tuning than expected. Building solo meant every decision, every bug, and every design call landed on me with a hard clock running.
Accomplishments that we're proud of Getting a real barcode scan firing on a physical device and returning an accurate deposit value for the user's state — fully offline, under two seconds. That moment where it just works is what the whole app is built around. Shipping a complete, demo-able product solo in under 24 hours is something I'm genuinely proud of.
What we learned Scope is everything at a hackathon. I learned to cut fast and build deep on the core feature rather than spread thin across every idea. I also learned that the hardest part of this problem isn't the tech — it's the data. Deposit rules vary by state, container size, and material type in ways that no single source captures cleanly.
What's next for Bottle-it The deposit system is broken at a policy level — a nickel hasn't changed since 1982 and it isn't enough. But Bottle-it can still grow within those constraints. Next steps are a live map of redemption centers using Google Places, voice feedback so users hear "Accepted" without looking at their phone, eco impact tracking for all 50 states so non-deposit users stay engaged, and a streak and goals system to build the recycling habit over time. Long term, partnerships with redemption centers and a pro analytics tier for high-volume collectors. The infrastructure exists — it just needs someone to make it usable.
Log in or sign up for Devpost to join the conversation.