Canned

Inspiration

The current recycling model is, simply put, complex there are seven different types of consumer plastics, some of which are recyclable while others aren’t. As people, especially the younger generation, become more environmentally concerned in our fast-paced consumer culture, it begs an important question: how can(ned) we make recycling more simple, personalized, and engaging?

Canned is a web app inspired by the idea of keeping junk journals, scrapbooking, and being confused over whether something is recyclable or not, even though it's plastic. We want people to be aware of what they discard by having ability to check if an item should be thrown away or recycled, all the while getting the ability to keep track of their consumption and environmental impact through a log of their past canned items.

What it does

Users can scan their waste and get feedback on whether they should throw it away or recycle it. Access a map of nearby waste and recycling bins as well as contribute to that database of waste/recycling bins locally. See their environmental impact data and stats. Log/track their trash and thereby locations through the pictures they take, like a travel junk journal!

How we built it

We used OpenAI's Vision Model, Firebase, and a React framework.

Challenges we ran into

The support/reasoning behind our idea because it's quite unconventional. Git conflicts. Identifying grease/food in recyclable containers. Markers not changing or lagging. Popups not popping!

Accomplishments that we're proud of

The UI and the technical implementation. We're happy by the web app's interface and fun, quirky functionalities, as well as how we were able to stick to our plan from beginning to end.

What we learned

Waste management is complex and requires a nuanced understanding. Building a classification feature is technically difficult because we wanted to distinguish certain waste materials as recyclable, but the fact that the waste could be contaminated prevented us from fully establishing that idea.