Waste Not, Want Not

The Issue

In the United States, a third of all food is wasted. This translates to roughly a 100 billion pounds annually that could feed 150 million people. Instead, it lies in landfills, releasing millions of tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Our Solution

Our proposed webapp is a method to target food waste from grocery businesses by redistributing them directly to local restaurants. That will serve to connect grocery stores and restaurants across the city. By providing a medium to connect two businesses-- one with excess inventory and one with a constant need for it-- we can develop mutually beneficial relationships, redirecting what would be wasted food and recapturing it as cost reduction. For the restaurants, it's another way to support locals community and save from lower transportation fees. It's a win for both sides and an even bigger victory for the environment with the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from the saved food.

How we built it

Using a combination of our team's skills, we were able to land in the intersection of creative storytelling, UI/UX, and machine learning in order to address a real-world problem. With a front-end interactive user face build on Javascript and HTML, we translated our pandas exploratory data analysis into a narrative that will guide participants to use and understand our prototype.

Challenges we ran into

Utilizing the skills of all our teammates was a difficult task. With conflicting ideas, and a variety of domain interests, it was difficult to narrow down to exactly one problem and message. It did take a good amount of time to finalize our plan but with that, we were able to solidify the basis of our project.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We're proud to have put this team together and demo a product that can combat such a large issue that lies with food waste. Translating our ideas to real, interactive visuals was fulfilling and demonstrated our capacity to deliver results in a time-limited environment.

What's next for Waste Not, Want Not

Hopefully a way to launch our prototype! This would require collecting more real-world numbers but with that, a pilot program can be released in a particular city. This is just the first step in our potential to shift the food industry.