WAYST

Inspiration

Time doesn’t stop for us, which means waste doesn’t stop either. Every day, the world is flooded with more waste than we think - the only solution? We must come together to reduce waste ourselves and begin to make a change. Waste is everywhere - sometimes we don’t even notice how much of an impact simple actions can affect waste production. A lot of us were taught or trained in different ways that may contribute to waste, but we don’t even know it! WAYST is here to educate, inform and reduce waste production. Waste depletes of our natural resources and compromises life on our planet. Our ultimate goal is to be able to reduce waste, be productive in the fight to reduce waste, collect data to inform policy and make the process simple, enjoyable and rewarding.

What it does

We created WAYST with the idea of easy access to resources in mind. With WAYST, users can easily access data that informs them of the ins and outs of recycling, waste disposal and donating (reusing). We also created an easy to use waste audit form system that allows quick and easy data collection from Hawaii waste audits! Alongside that, we provide the user with location information on the nearest organizations they can visit to recycle, donate or properly dispose of waste or reusable items that the user may no longer need.

How we built it

The Curb Alert team built the application with the Ionic framework - combining web and mobile development into one using HTML, TypeScript, Angular and SASS.

Challenges I ran into

Josephine: Learning Ionic was very challenging. Overall, I think time management was a big issue. If you’re using a new and unfamiliar framework, start early! Alisa: Ionic was an entirely new territory as I’ve never used or heard of it before. However using it for this project, I’m happy to have learned a new skill set. Lisa: Starting from scratch with video editing. I enjoyed learning quickly and will keep making videos. Kelsey: Ionic was a huge learning curve for me. Trying to pick up a new framework in little time was difficult but also rewarding. I agree with Josephine.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

Josephine: Despite not being able to complete a working backend, I’m glad I had the opportunity to utilize and implement a design and feature with components from Ionic to attempt to address a problem. Alisa: Coming from a background with little experience in coding and design, developing this app with my team was a huge accomplishment for me.
Lisa: My challenge turned in the accomplishment of which I am most proud. I am very pleased with learning to put together a video. I hope you enjoy it! Kelsey: I am most proud of getting Ionic to work as intended and produce both a web and mobile view. That was exciting to do via Ionic and not from the bare bones minimum! Coooool!

What I learned

Josephine: I learned that it’s important to keep track of time and to manage scope well. I’ve barely touched the surface of creating a well functioning app with Ionic, but I feel like I’ve learned a lot about what tools I can use beyond the frameworks and technologies that I’m more accustomed to. Beyond that, it was a great opportunity to be able to develop a solution to a problem that aims to improve sustainability. Alisa: From this being my first hackathon, I learned many skills ranging from time management to technical skills such as ionic, typescript, etc… I am grateful to my teammates because they have taught me a lot about the entire process of developing an app. Lisa: I learned a great deal about developing an app. I am very happy to have had this experience. I feel confident that I can now set-up an IDE and develop an app, as well as market the app with videos. I also learned that I can make a larger impact to help the environment. Kelsey: I learned that stress isn’t good and that time goes by too quickly! However, I also learned that pushing yourself to learn new things is how you grow as a person. I’m glad I got to learn new things with my team. I hope to continue developing with my friends and I hope we continue to all grow together as developers!

What's next for Wayst

Wayst has a lot planned that was not able to be created within this time frame. In the future, Wayst plans to add different user accounts, event scheduling, notifications for the users to remind them of upcoming events or schedules, and the ability to visualize and export waste audit data into readable files for organizers to utilize. We would also like to improve existing pages and add further functionality that would heighten the user experience even more.