Recyclean

Recyclean

Inspiration

Contamination at recycling facilities poses an imminent threat to our planet and continues to contribute to climate change. A batch of recyclable items can become contaminated from garbage items that cannot be recycled and remaining food or drink contents. Everyone is guilty of throwing out half-drank juice containers or half-eaten boxes of food. However, what most people do not realize is that contamination can be extremely detrimental to a variety of sectors, and it is in the hands of consumers to stop the negative effects of contaminated recyclables. In recycling facilities located in the GTA, improperly recycled items (recyclables with traces of food or non-recyclable items) can send an entire batch of recyclables to landfills. Even a 1% rate of contamination can cost up to 5 million dollars lost. Due to this problem, many recycling programs have difficulties offsetting the cost of processing recyclables due to the losses incurred by contamination, ultimately costing Canadian recycling programs millions of dollars every year. Furthermore, considering that plastic production is on the rise globally, more and more individuals are incorrectly disposing of larger amounts of plastic - only 9% of Canadian plastic was recycled in 2019.

What it does

Recyclean makes recycling easy! It's a web app that identifies whether or not an item is recyclable and how to dispose of it. Whether the item is recyclable, compostable or disposable, Recyclean will instruct the user of how to properly dispose of it. The web app is an accessible and convenient way of recycling properly to combat contamination in the recycling sector and contribute to reducing our landfills.