Sustaina

Inspiration

We built this app to solve a major dual crisis: 1) The vast environmental and economic loss caused by urban waste and 2) the persistent gap in financial inclusion for young people and low income workers.

Our solution is simple; we turn waste into bankable capital. By converting the material value of recyclables into direct financial deposits, we create a powerful economic incentive to clean our cities and provide thousands of people with their first path to digital saving and formal banking.

What it does

Sustaina is an app that converts the material value of recycled waste into financial capital; recycling becomes an alternative deposit method that integrates with any financial institution.

How we built it

The project development was structured around simultaneous planning and implementation. We began with a detailed Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) to define the data model, first capturing general concepts and then refining granular specifications. This foundational work was immediately followed by the creation of the reference design in Figma for the user interface and the parallel implementation of the source code.

Challenges we ran into

Initially, our primary challenge was aligning our original vision with the specific focus of the Capital One Fintech track. Overcoming this strategic gap was a significant challenge in structuring the project. We solved this through a quick process of prioritization and synthesis, focusing all development on the central function of turning waste directly into financial capital.

Additionally, the main technical challenge we faced was designing the ranking system for performance without overloading the database. Our solution relies on a direct query sorting method: we order the teams from highest to lowest and then assign a sequential position to the first column. This was the implementation we successfully validated and delivered

What's next for Sustaina

The immediate future involves a transition toward a hardware integration phase to automate material processing. This initiative centers on deploying a smart waste disposal unit capable of scanning and autonomously classifying materials, which will be connected directly to Sustaina. The objective is to streamline the collection process by directing pre-sorted recyclables to designated aggregation centers, thereby enhancing efficiency and scalability across the supply chain.

Built With

• canva
• feathersjs
• figma
• flutter
• miro