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Recyclonnect Logo
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Website About
Inspiration
As a team, we agreed that one of our main concerns pertaining to sustainability is the struggles of recycling. As a society we often throw trash away to be recycled, although nearly 91% of things we throw out is not actually recyclable according to the Canadian government. After self reflecting, we came to a conclusion that we do not put enough effort to recycle responsibly, and we're sure we aren't the only ones to lack the effort.
What it does
Recyclonnect is a web-based software that will identify recyclable material such as plastic water bottles being thrown away correctly. This means being thrown in the right bins. To incentivize the idea of throwing plastic and recyclable materials where they should go, Recyclonnect will award the user with cryptocurrency of their choice.
How we built it
We built Recyclonnect using Taipy, a super productive Python library to build full web-application GUIs! We also incorporated the QRCode library for scanning purposes and firebase security for back end.
Challenges we ran into
Building Recyclonnect was never crystal clear, and we overcame many difficult obstacles endlessly.
The first obstacle was of course, understanding what Taipy was and how it worked! Taipy is a python based library, but with many of its own specifications. An example of this was adjusting to the syntax for variable visual element.
Next came errors with the GUI and formatting. Centralizing the text boxes and organizing the UI of a website was something completely new! After many trial and error attempts, we finally clawed our way to success.
Conceptualizing the QRCode conundrum was a conceptual problem we ran into. Realistically, we needed a way to have the user scan a recyclable material like a bottle, and have them rewarded for recycling properly. However, we didn't want this system to be abused by constantly recycling the same bottle and finding a loop hole, as this isn't what was intended. Our solution for this was to have an autogenerated list of codes that we would scan off a list on a server or domain.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Some accomplishments we are proud of is the development of a user friendly website that seamlessly integrates incentive based recycling. This will ensure greater recycling rates and attention to detail when it comes to the users actions. Successful incorporation of blockchain to create a new and complex rewarding system, alongside treading the waters in uncharted territories for us. The cutting edge object recognition technology that is being used allows for ease of recycling for any user, alongside the proper recycling of materials. This is great for the environment and ultimately reduces wastes from landfills.
What we learned
There were many challenges we have dealt with. Technical hurdles were the most difficult to overcome, as with problems regarding ideas or concepts, they could be easily talked through with the team until a consensus is reached. Unfortunately with technical obstacles, the whole team agrees on the goal, but nobody is able to surpass the problem. This taught us how to work around problems that were too difficult to solve within this time frame and compromise for similar results. Time management is always a factor when it comes to a group project that has a deadline. We have learned that a weekend can go by quite fast when not planning a proper schedule. Interdisciplinary collaboration and communication were key. The team comprised of different skillsets, especially in the technical department. Brainstorming and and coming to a clear consensus has taught us a lot about looking past our differences and working together efficiently.
What's next for Cr4zy H4ck3rz
Looking forward, we want to continue to push for positive change in anyway, shape or form. We believe that responsible recycling is a big step towards a sustainable future, but there are of course more factors to sustainability such as the carbon footprint. In the near future, once done with this project, we hope to look in this direction and focus on a method to optimize gas usage through regenerative breaking in automobiles.
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