EcoBuy

Website Demo Sample Input
Website Demo Output

Inspiration

We were inspired by the challenge of understanding the environmental impact of our everyday purchases. Even when we make an effort to choose sustainably, the information isn't always clear or accessible.

What it does

With EcoBuy, you can uncover the environmental impact behind the products you buy every day. Simply choose a category, like groceries, personal care, or household, and enter an item to learn how sustainable it really is. Whether you’re checking if something’s recyclable, biodegradable, or ethically made, EcoBuy helps you make informed, eco-conscious choices that create a greener future.

How we built it

To address this problem, we built our project using Google Colab and Streamlit, an open-source Python framework that allowed us to quickly develop and deploy our interactive web application. We also integrated Google Gemini into our website by using its API Key, to help provide efficient and accurate answers.

Challenges we ran into

One of the main challenges we encountered was integrating Gemini’s API into our system. However, through careful, line-by-line debugging and persistence, we were able to resolve the issues and get everything working smoothly.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of figuring out how to integrate Gemini into our website, despite running into many problems with it. One of the main problems was that it was not displaying anything, despite the code showing no errors. Eventually, we were able to figure the problem out though and were able to finish our website quickly after.

What we learned

On the technical side, we learned how to connect APIs and integrate them into a website using Streamlit, which was new to us. Additionally, this process taught us how to collaborate effectively as a team, as well as how to deal with code that is not working the way it is intended to.

What's next for EcoBuy

Next, we plan to add more product categories and enhance the AI’s ability to analyze the sustainability of each good. Other goals are to create a rating system that shows how environmentally-conscious each product is and provide users with location-based suggestions for local stores that are focused on sustainability.