RecycleMeWhere

Chosen Theme & Problem Statement Our chosen theme is the environment, and the problem statement is question 2, which aims to encourage more people to recycle, or make recycling more convenient and accessible.

Inspiration As we delve deeper into the problem statement, we believe that most of us would throw our recyclables into regular bins because they are more common and we do not know whether there is a recycling bin nearby.

What does our hack do? RecycleMeWhere is an online Web Application that encourages users to recycle by displaying all the nearest Recycling bins across Singapore conveniently. It can allow users to be aware of where recycling points are around Singapore, and help them to find the closest bin to go to.

In Singapore, recycling bins are almost always located within a stone’s throw away. With such an application, we aim to accord users with the convenience of locating and accessing nearby recycling bins, so that they can be made aware of where their unwanted recyclable items can be disposed of and are more likely to play their part.

How did we build our hack? We used React.js as our front end framework, Material UI as our component library and Creative Tim’s Material Kit 2 template for the web page, as well as Firebase for the backend.

Difficulties We Overcame? For some, it was their first time using this tech stack and faced a learning curve. It was also the group's first time making use of a map api, which presented a few challenges. In addition, usage limits for the free Firebase plan were easily hit due to the large number of bins added. Since our app is still in the development phase, we overcome this by simply creating additional Firebase accounts. In the future, if we plan to release this for production, we can overcome this problem by either sourcing for other database apps or upgrading our Firebase plan.

Biggest Learning Point? Time management and planning is important in ensuring that the project runs smoothly. On top of that, familiarizing ourselves with the tech stack is crucial in order to achieve all our requirements in a short span of time.