Inspiration
As a San Diego resident, I have been exposed to the pacific ocean almost all my life. Under the beauty of the coastline and sunsets, I discovered the problem of plastic pollution at an early age. With my participation in several beach clean-ups, I realized that in order to end plastic pollution, everyone had to contribute. Thus, I was inspired to create Whalien 52 in hopes of initiating change by motivating others to reduce their own plastic footprint.
What it does
Whalien 52 is the name for the loneliest whale in the world, recognized for being the only whale of an unknown species that calls at a frequency of 52 hertz. The website, Whalien 52, serves to bring awareness and quantify both plastic footprints as well as the impact of efforts in preventing more plastic pollution. With plastic pollution in the ocean affecting animals and humans alike, it is becoming increasingly necessary to understand an individual's effect on this issue. Thus, this website provides a plastic footprint calculator that allows one to gauge their own general usage of plastic. In addition, Whalien 52 also provides a clean-up impact calculator for those who want to understand their efforts in picking up litter through a bigger picture, that provides a daily percent reduction of plastic going into the ocean and how many marine animals lives they can potentially save. The final feature of Whalien 52 is the tracker which allows one to track their plastic usage daily.
How we built it
I built Whalien 52 with HTML, CSS, and Javascript
Challenges we ran into
One of the biggest challenges I ran into was the creation of the main features: plastic footprint calculator, clean-up impact calculator, and tracker. These features relied heavily on javascript which I had no experience in prior to the hackathon. Thus, in order to optimize the greatest functionality, I learned how to manipulate functions and variables using javascript.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
I am proud of the entire website because I could utilize my knowledge in computer science in order to potentially impact an issue close to my heart.
What we learned
I learned several things. One of the biggest things that I learned was javascript, which I can now say that I am proficient in. In addition, by making a website on plastic pollution, I have gained an immense amount of knowledge of the issue
What's next for Whalien 52
I hope to implement a google map API in order to allow users to easily find places where they can begin change on their own, as reversing the situation of plastic pollution truly needs the aid of everyone.
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