Recycle Me

Inspiration

When it comes to sustainable waste disposal, rules and standards often vary across different geographical areas. We often found ourselves confused on which items to recycle and where to dispose of them properly, especially when moving from home to college and vice versa. That’s why we wanted a simple solution that centralizes all the information we would need in one place.

What it does

Users can view randomly-generated facts, take a quiz to test their knowledge about recycling and composting, and learn more from official and reliable sources. The location is set to Raleigh and currently unchangeable. However, we envisioned it to be able to be adapted to all locations.

How we built it

We used Java and Android Studio.

Challenges we ran into

This was everyone’s first time building an Android app, so we all had a huge learning curve. The biggest challenge was that Android Studio was not opening XML files after cloning from GitHub for some of our team members.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Although we faced many technical difficulties, we were able to find creative solutions or substitutes. For example, we used one person’s computer and screen to write code while the rest of us researched information and bug solutions. While this may have slowed us down, it also forced us to work together in real time and develop our collaboration skills!

What we learned

As this was our first time building an app, we learned the basics of mobile Android app development using Java and Android Studio. We attended the Android App Development Workshop to learn the basics, which we found very helpful in the beginning stages of developing our app. Furthermore, we learned troubleshooting skills during the debugging process.

What's next for Recycle Me

We plan to expand our platform so that users who are not living in Raleigh can learn how to recycle and compost locally. We also plan to implement nice features that allow users to take further steps in learning how to make sustainable changes to their lifestyles.