LoopRRR

App Logo

💡💡 Inspiration 💡💡

The problem

While we were brainstorming ideas, we researched the current situation of recycling. We realized just 9% of plastics were properly recycled in Canada [1]. The rest of the plastics either go to landfills or just get tossed as litter. If each of us makes our own effort to follow the protocols of recycling, less waste would be dumped into the landfill. There are ample rules and guidelines to guide us through how to categorize and place the recycling items in the correct place. An example of such a resource would be from the City of Toronto: https://www.toronto.ca/services-payments/recycling-organics-garbage/houses/what-goes-in-my-blue-bin/ Yet, people still lack the motivation on learning the different categories of recycling and the incentive to make recycling a habit.

The Competitors

UX Competitor Audit (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1R6rAO6-L79h_ptJ_M27G9PgiTzyLYW4t/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=104134201410601374482&rtpof=true&sd=true) We looked into what has been done in other applications and websites so we could improve the lacks and keep the goods, there was no product that had a rewarding system that could be essential to encouraging user’s positive behaviours. Most of our competitors’ interface also lacks the feeling of engagement. To improve this, we used augmented reality cartoons to provide users with a more interactive and fun experience.

Recycle Mate (https://dreamwalk.com.au/project/recycle-mate) is a project that uses Vision AI to identify which bin an item should go in. loopRRR also uses similar technology, but it expands the idea by allowing users to have the option of either recycling, donating, or repurposing.

Business ideas on how we can generate profit

Collaborate with companies for them to distribute coupons, for example, Walmart. Advertisement within the app Work with the government

How it relates to our theme

Our app bridges the global sustainability challenge of recycling and allows users to connect and learn more about shelters around their area whilst donating their items.

Our solution

We recognize the problem isn’t there are not enough resources to learn about recycling and a lack of knowledge on what to do on an individual level, but a way to make it a day-to-day habit without a second thought. Hence, loopRRR is a solution that could engage users with recycling in a fun way, like finding Pokemons 🎉 when donating or recycling. (Yup, that’s where our AR idea came from, Pokemon!) At the same time, it educates users on what items shall be put to which bins or belongs to which categories. Lastly, by tracking the number of times the users donated/recycled, it quantifies the act of goodwill that in the long run, the action can become a habit.

♻♻ What it does ♻♻

Firstly, the user can register an account via the sign-in page with their email and create a password for the app. When the user is logged in, loopRRR allows the users to take a picture of the item they are unsure what to do with it on the main screen. Then the vision api will return the keyword extracted from the image. The user can choose to donate, recycle, or make crafts out of the target item. For example, take a picture of the plastic bottle and then choose the craft option, it will take the user to YouTube to search for plastic bottle DIY. If the user takes a picture of a piece of furniture, the app directs the user to go to a nearby donation center/ women shelter.

When the user arrives at one of the donation or recycling centers, they can pull out the app to open the camera for an Augmented Reality experience. Our mascot graphic would display a thank you message. Once the action of donation or recycle is performed, one recycling point is earned for the user. Users are able to collect these points and use them to enter raffles to win prizes, or choose to donate the prize amount to a charity of their choice.

🏗🏗 How we built it 🏗🏗

Figma Expo React-native and JavaScript Google map api Google Vision api Firebase authentication that enables login with email Camera package AR component using Viro Media

👷‍♀️👷‍♀️ Challenges we ran into 👷‍♀️👷‍♀️

It is the first time to use expo and react native for most of the team members. It took us a while to get used to the tech and start building the hack. Api permissions, camera, vision api, and getting the AR to work took some time to debug. The mentors helped us get through some bugs. The AR component with Viro Media works in react native but needs to be edited to be compatible with expo, so it currently runs as a standalone app. Also, we had a lot of ideas on how to build the hack, which included how to verify if our user has actually put the recycle item in a nearby recycle or donation center by interacting with the AR component, and were chatting on how to implement each feature in detail; yet, there was simply not enough time!

🌟✨ Accomplishments that we're proud of ✨🌟

The expo app is up and running with the vision, map, and firebase email auth working! We have an AR mascot that shows up (but it is not fully attached to the main app)! Our team faced a lot of challenges in the first half of the hackathon because we were not very familiar with the technology, yet we persisted and got most of the API functionalities to work during the second half of TechNova. As we mentioned before, it was the first time for many of us to use expo and react native for many of us.

👩‍🎓👩‍🎓 What we learned 👩‍🎓👩‍🎓

It is important to prioritize what we want to accomplish for the app first. Don’t get stuck on one tutorial on one idea too long. If it doesn’t work, try another tutorial or another method. Time management is the key to a successful hackathon project.

We learnt to implement vision api, map api, and the expo-camera packages for the react native app. It was very satisfying to learn new tech stacks and new things to work with.

Also, we expanded our knowledge on the locations of women shelters, recycling stations, and craft Youtube Channels that use recycled materials.

🔮🔮 What's next for LoopRRR 🔮🔮

As the app presents a prototype of what our team wishes to bring to the table, we would first like to improve the user interface if given more time. Then, the next step is to implement the AR component of the app on the expo app.

Future directions 🤩🤩

Generate new codes per day per each recycling/ donation center to validate their donation/ recycling act so the points given are legit Detect whether the item is too old or unsuitable to donate to women shelters by training our own ML Support multiple languages to make it more accessible for instance, English and French Create a database that combines the data of items and the category of disposal (garbage, recycle, donate) from across Canada such as (https://www.york.ca/wps/portal/yorkhome/environment/bindicator/!ut/p/z0/fYzBCoJAFEW_xvV7QQoupaCyVUigbyPjOEwv9U1Ok-TfN_gB7e45HC4Q1ECiFrYqsBM1Rm4oazFP9-e8wvKUpkcsDuUV71W1u10yKIH-B_GBn_NMBZB2Esw3QL36dtsSElydHyK8A4fPJh5uMgkaWdg7mTZlle-UNUp6b_SqRxabYMfSs1bBeXgN1PwABLVHXQ!!/) Find sponsors (e.g. Instacart, Walmart, etc.) for the recycle points so that users will be able to use the points they collected in grocery shopping, donating cash points to local charity units, for example, that can further incentify the act of recycling. It would be something similar to Terracycle, a Canadian recycling firm: https://www.terracycle.com/en-CA# Provide social media links for users to share their recycling points

[1] Recycling Council of Ontario. (2019, April 22). Canada recycles just 9 percent of its plastics - Recycling Council of Ontario. Retrieved from Recycling Council of Ontario website: https://rco.on.ca/canada-recycles-just-9-per-cent-of-its-plastics/