REPURPOSE THE LIFE PURPOSE.

Inspiration

When researching the Circular Economy we found a plethora of initiatives and innovative ideas and technologies spanning across industries. We heard of manufacturers converting food waste to fibres and textiles for sports brands and heard of recycling plastics for apparel. All this was so interesting however there was one thing lacking. Consumer involvement. How could we as young college students become more responsible about waste disposal. How could we keep track of our own carbon footprint? The answer was of course to connect with initiatives that would help live more sustainably . However, there were so many businesses, different startups and workforces with different websites, different recycling rules which just confused us. Thus came around the idea of our Circular Economy Business Aggregator - ‘Repurpose the Life Purpose.’

What it does

Our website is an aggregator for businesses contributing to the Circular Economy initiative. We will connect consumers like you and me with our trusted businesses and startups that are actively recycling waste and old products. Never again will the process of recycling and reusing be more easier. You can search for waste that you want to dispose of responsibly, track the outcome of recycling that waste and will also be able to buy products from businesses that are sustainably upcycling them. Our system of trading waste for incentives such as badges, discount codes and sponsorships will keep consumers engaged about responsible waste disposal, thus helping with long term sustainability.

How we built it

We used an existing web template built with React and built on that, by reusing already existing code with its license. We adapted our ideas on Circular Economy to the template and changed some features in React.js. The styling of the page has been adjusted using CSS.

Challenges we ran into

One of the major challenges we faced was refining and streamlining our Circular Economy Aggregator. With so many options and techniques and pathways that the aggregator could take it was important for us to ensure that consumers have an easy way to be more responsible about recycling, upcycling, reusing and also are incentivised to be more responsible all the same. It is easy to try something new and be part of initiatives and programs, however keeping consumers engaged with these initiatives is quite challenging. This is why we discussed the feature of being able to track one’s trades and exchanges as that would keep consumers engaged and would also give them a sense of participation and satisfaction that their small steps are helping make a sustainable circular economy. We hope that with our idea of companies sponsoring products, revealing discount codes and adding badges to consumer profiles which would possibly unlock prizes in the future would be a good way to keep consumers engaged with our aggregator.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

This is our first online hackathon and we are happy and proud that we managed to complete it remotely through video calls and chat messages.

What we learned

This hackathon gave us the opportunity to realise there needs to be more general focus on sustainability. These days, we spend most of our time researching the Circular Economy and discovering people that are really devoted and try to make an impact in this area. We learnt that we need to find ways to motivate people from around the globe to join this movement.

What's next for REPURPOSE THE LIFE PURPOSE.

There are many features that could be added to our website. The profile with discounts, vouchers and the received badges, currently accumulated points by donating and buying through the website. The tracking of donated items is also an idea that could be implemented in the web application. A feature that delivers individual statistics on the consumer’s contributions, trades and shopping would help consumers be more responsible about their own individual carbon footprints.