ecoGo - Recycling, made simple.

ecoGo - Recycling, made simple.
ecoGo main pages (left to right - dashboard, leaderboard, profile).
ecoGo barcode scanner - scan any item.
ecoGo welcome / login / landing page.

Problem

Many of us have probably been in this same scenario before. You just finished your favorite snack, or finished some frozen pizza, and were left there dumbfounded, asking yourself the age-old question of whether the box or wrapper goes in the trash or recycling. I mean, “the pizza box is made out of cardboard right”? Then you start to question why you can’t recycle some things, but you can do others. Like, why can you recycle paper, but not wood or books? Or, why are some plastics safe to recycle, but others are harmful to the environment?

Background

It’s clear that many people don’t know what materials belong in the trash or recycling, and because of this, over 80% of what we recycle goes straight to a landfill, completely eliminating the point of recycling. The reason? Non-recyclable items are mixed in with recyclables, making it inefficient to separate them. These contaminated recyclables generate methane and CO2 gas, these gasses, also known as greenhouse gasses, trap heat in the atmosphere exponentially speeding up global warming. The toxic substances from these landfills also seep into our groundwater, which is a massive environmental hazard. So, landfills are getting bigger, and it’s mostly because of mislabelled trash, but is it really our fault? Between the different colored plastics, complex sorting systems, and questionable materials, recycling is becoming less of a way of helping the environment, and more of a hassle. According to a research by Stanford University, by slowing down the rate at which mislabelled garbage products end up in landfills, we can reduce overall waste, climate increase, and energy by over 80%.

Purpose

Introducing ecoGo, recycling made simple. With ecoGo, the days of having to waste your time looking at tiny symbols on plastic bottles are over. Using ecoGo, you can find if something is recyclable or not in a matter of seconds. It's as simple as 1, 2, 3 - open the ecoGo app, tap the camera at the bottom, position the barcode of the item, and just like that, we’ve found out whether it's recyclable or not. We also found out the materials it’s made out of, and why it's considered safe for recycling.

Solutions

Not only is it an informational app, but it’s also able to effectively encourage people to recycle. How exactly? The same way every social media keeps their users hooked - by making it a game. By introducing a points system that tracks how many recyclable products you’ve scanned, along with a leaderboard, it encourages people to buy more recyclable and environmentally friendly products. This, paired with personal profiles, the ability to follow other users, and have leaderboards with your friends, creates a competitive atmosphere, and adds a whole new layer to the apps. It’s not just a recycling app - it’s a way to get together with your community, meet people who have similar interests to you, and on top of all that, save the environment.

Product

How does ecoGo work? I would say that it’s magic, but that’s an understatement. Using the target API, which has a database of millions of products, we’re able to identify the product using the premade barcode. To put into perspective how large the database is, an average target store has 60,000 unique products. As I said, maybe even better than magic. In the rare event that what you scan isn’t in the database, you can always click the 3 dots in the top right corner to send a photo and barcode, and we’ll add it as soon as we can. If that’s not an option for you, we have an eco-Tips section, which includes helpful environmental tips and articles for you to be more friendly to the environment. And one of my favorite parts of the app - the eco-Tips on the loading screen. Every time you open the app, you get a new environmental tip, making you more aware of the things you can do to save the environment.

Audience

Recycling is done by everyone of all age groups, all around the world - this is why the app was specifically designed with the user in mind. From the highlighted buttons to the simple instructions, the ecoGo app was created to be as easy to use as possible for everyone. The minimal aesthetics, paired with the contrasting tones of green, white, and gray give it a simple, yet elegant visually-pleasing design.

Impact

With the changing nature of our environment, technology is as important as ever, and we’ve found a way to revolutionize the use of technology for environmental sustainability. Not only does recycling help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, slowing the growth of global warming, but recycling also reduces the need to acquire new materials, such as wood. ecoGo is a game changer for environmental sustainability and is the next step forward in a better, and simpler, future.

What's Next

We’ve already tackled the issue of sustaining the environment, but how will the business sustain itself? Well, every time you scan a recyclable product you gain a point, but what if you gain double, triple, or even more points than that? That’s where sponsorships come in. A company could pay us to have their product listed as giving out more points when scanned in the notifications tab, which would be sent out to a determined number of users. This isn’t just helping the environment by causing people to buy more environmentally friendly products, but also helps us and other companies.

Conclusion

ecoGo helps nullify a major problem in our world - environmentally sustainability, or more specifically, recycling. You're not only able to save time determining what obscure symbols are on the bottom of your plastic container, but you're also saving the environment. Recycling conserves water, energy, limits greenhouse gasses, and conserves natural resources; by slowing down the rate at which mislabelled garbage products end up in landfills, ecoGo can reduce overall waste, climate increase, and energy by over 80%. ecoGo is a part of a whole, a nudge, that will simply move the global community a step in the right direction for environmental sustainability.