GreenCycle | Devpost

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Inspiration

Recycling has been a major part of sustainability efforts. In North Carolina, throwing away plastic bottles is illegal. However, there are no incentives to recycle in most states. Some states such as Oregon and California use the bottle deposit system to increase recycling rates by giving people $0.05 to $0.10 when a bottle is turned in at a redemption center. However, this process is tedious, requiring the consumer to personally collect and return the bottles themselves. The redemption center acts as an unnecessary middle-man between the consumer and recycling center, costing the government money and the consumers time. Curbside pickup is much more convenient, but also has no monetary incentive. We have created an app to combine the convenience of curbside pickup with the incentive of bottle deposit.

What it does

GreenCycle combines the convenience of curbside recycling with the monetary incentive of bottle deposit. A user would use the app to scan a QR code on the bottle, tying the bottle to their account. Then they would recycle it at any location (school, businesses, etc). Once the bottle reaches the recycling center, a validation scan of the QR code would fulfil the smart contract and credits would automatically be applied to their account. We hope to replace the bottle deposit system with this app, allowing states to adopt this bottle deposit system much faster and with less physical infrastructure.

How I built it

First, the mongoDB database and Python/Flask server was created to handle QR code data and process user credentials and history, item creation, and item validation. The Python server was deployed on AWS Beanstalk. Then a react-native frontend was created to allow both iOS and Android users access to the platform. Part of the react-native front end is a QR code scanner for logging the bottles. Solidity smart contracts were written but we did not have time to deploy on a testnet/integrate with our app. The bottle scans would be recorded on the blockchain and once the validation scan has been conducted, the smart contract would be fulfilled, automatically giving the user credit. This would be a safer, more scalable method and could allow for bottle rewards programs to use our platform for rewards distribution.

Challenges we ran into

Bottles would need a unique identifier, printed by the bottler. We used QR codes in the demo. Two versions of users would be needed: the User and the Validator. Hosting the project on blockchain. Coming up with a simple approach to recycling with the right amount of (monetary) incentives. Graph is a placeholder for now.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Creating a full stack application to help make more people recycle. Building the application as a team.

What we learned

A mobile application’s development process and the use of smart contracts to solve problems. Also, plastic recycling can have a sustainable and economically viable solution.

What's next for GreenCycle

Implementing blockchain to make a more secure backend. Extending QR scanning to more recyclables. Taking this application to production. Working with the government to improve the recycling rate.