Inspiration
According to the EPA, 75% of all waste in the U.S. can be recycled, but only 25% of waste actually is recycled. This discrepancy is partially caused by a lack of consumer awareness on how to correctly dispose of waste. It can often confusing for consumers to know how to dispose of waste because different municipalities and facilities have their own waste disposal laws. Products like e-waste have special recycling rules.
What it does
Green Guide is a website where users can search for an item and instantly find how to dispose of it in accordance with local community rules. Municipalities or facilities can create their own Green Guide community. Communities can set their own recycling rules and local waste disposal methods. Users can join the community in their location to see the recycling rules specific to their area.
How we built it and challenges
In the limited time we had, we were able to make a demo of Green Guide using node.js, react, and typescript. While the finished product will be a live website, for our demo we made a local website. One of the challenges we faced was integration of MongoDB. We originally intended to use MongoDB to store our items and communities data. However, since none of us had prior experience with MongoDB, we were unable to fully integrate the database in time. Instead, we settled on using local json files to store the item data and local community rules for our demo.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We're proud of our concept , which we believe could be incredibly useful for many people and communities. Once fully developed, Green Guide will be impactful in educating people on the right ways to recycle. It is something that we ourselves would actually use, which is what we were going for. We're also proud of our demo that we were able to create with the time constraints. We believe Green Guide has a lot of potential and the demo is a great starting point.
What we learned
We learned a lot about developing web apps using node.js, react, and typescript. Since we had never used MongoDB before, we also learned more about MongoDB and NoSQL databases. Additionally, we learned about the design process, including brainstorming ideas and developing an initial prototype.
What's next for Green Guide
There's a lot in store for Green Guide. We would like to finish developing our demo into a fully functional minimum viable product. In order to do this, we will need to get a domain, servers, and finish integrating MongoDB. We will also need to update our database of items and add the ability for users to create their own communities.
Once we have implemented all of these features, we have several other features in mind. We would like our website to create awareness for upcycling, which is reusing waste to create something new. In addition to providing waste disposal information, we want to provide users with "recipes" for upcycling their waste. In the finished product, any user would be able to upload their own creative ways that they reused an item. Then, when users search for ways to dispose an item, they can also see the most popular recipes to upcycle it. The addition of this feature could help users find more creative and sustainable ways to reuse their items rather than dispose of them.
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