Repository
https://github.com/jp0123/food_for_earth
Inspiration
Australians discard up to 20% of the food they purchase (foodwise, 2018)
What it does
FoodForEarth is a web platform that provides users with a more environmentally-friendly alternative to handle household food waste. It also features an Internet of Things (IoT) device, a smart compost bin, that can be purchased via the website and delivered to the user's home.
With the bin connected to a 4G network, it will communicate to the web server, reporting back how much of the bin is currently filled. The user is able to monitor their bins on the FoodForEarth web platform and know when their compost is all done and ready for pick up.
Who is this for?
FoodForEarth will first be implemented in suburban areas, where collection of bins is logistically simpler as most people live in houses rather than apartments. The target audience for the collecting of bins (farmers, gardeners, etc) also mostly live in these areas rather than metropolitan areas. The target audience for the purchasing of bins are environmentally conscious home owners.
How we built it
We built the web app using the MERN stack [mongoDB, express, react, node]. Front end was built using React; back end was built with Mongo, Express and Node. For the physical prototype of the compost bin, we incorporated the Adafruit Circuit Playground Express board, manipulated with the C language.
Challenges we ran into
The idea
Our original idea for this project was to create a C2C web platform of which fertiliser users are able to browse a map of all ready-to-pick-up bins in the area provided by the fertiliser household producers. However, there was an issue concerning the logistics of collecting bins from people who live in apartments, as pointed out by the mentors.
The techy stuff
The React packages had been a challenge to navigate and implement, especially with the Google Maps API.
What we learned
We learned that the business side of the product is just as important as its technical difficulty and its design.
What's next for Food4Earth
Seeing as we haven't fully configured our smart compost bin prototype to connect and communicate to the web server via wireless sensor network (WSN), we believe that the immediate next step for FoodForEarth is to accomplish this.
On the other hand, there are certainly many features that can be added to the FoodForEarth platform to enable a better user experience; one of which being a messaging service between the fertiliser producers and users. We speculate that by adding a messaging service on the platform, platform users will be able to foster more effective and efficient communication with each other through more secure means. More specifically, scheduling individual fertiliser pick up times can be done more easily without requiring users to provide their personal contact details. Other than this particular addition to the FoodForEarth platform, we also see the possibility of incorporating other technology that have not yet been properly commercialised, such as delivery drones, to automate the logistical process of the fertiliser and decrease the human effort needed for execution.
We would like to allow users living in other residential situations to participate in our goal to reduce food waste. So far, because of personal security issues, our product can only be deemed feasible for execution among users living in individual suburban houses. As urbanisation progresses and more people move into more crowded living circumstances, we wish to find the perfect way for apartment complexes to use compost bins and join in the effort to protect our Earth.
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