RecycleNow

• 

  Design of RecycleNow Website

Inspiration

I originally came across the struggle with recycling while working in my family restaurant, noticing how garbage piled up, but the recycling bin didn’t. I noticed that many people don’t exactly know what can and cannot be recycled. In fact, over 50% of households in BC don’t recycle properly despite 99% of them having access to city waste programs. The core issue we found isn’t the lack of recycling systems—it's that people are confused, busy, and unsure about what should be recycled.

What it does

RecycleNow automatically identifies and sorts where all your "garbage" can be recycled just by taking one photo. RecycleNow also keeps track of which Canadian city the recycling regulations should be referenced from. Lastly, it also keeps track of how many of each type of recyclable material you have recycled, so you can see your contributions to making the Earth a better place!

How we built it

After many hours of trial and error, we finally produced a result we were proud to present. We invested significant time in the brainstorming stage because we wanted an idea that was well-developed and worthy of the effort we planned to put into the building phase.

Challenges we ran into

Throughout the night, we faced numerous setbacks, including moments when entire files were filled with errors. Despite this, we persisted, working through syntax issues, server connection problems, and the challenging task of passing user inputs from the frontend to the Gemini API.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of the goal we set for ourselves and the determination we brought to achieving it, even when the process felt overwhelming at times. Despite the challenges, we pushed forward with persistence and effort, and we are proud of how we tackled a project that initially seemed so daunting.

What we learned

We learned the general framework on how to build an interactive website and how to add AI integrations for photo inputs.. Moreover, we learned to implement and integrate the API alongside front-end user inputs.

What's next for RecycleNow

Eventually, we want RecycleNow to expand to all of Canada to benefit citizens living all over as we currently only have the major Canadian cities. We also want to partner with municipalities, schools, and universities to promote informed recycling and reduce the number of people struggling with recycling materials properly.

Built With

• css
• gemini-api
• git
• html
• javascript
• lovable
• react
• typescript