Recyculator. Because recycling is a numbers game. Updated June 18th 2014 (new images)
Sometimes recycling is just not so convenient. It is these times that you ask yourself questions like: “would this one bottle of coke really make a difference? How much difference would one bottle make?” The common answer is “every bottle counts” but how much does it count? What if you knew exactly how much water, trees, electricity and CO2 you save by recycling each product? The idea: Recyculator- an app that provides information on your recycling impact. The app allows you to scan a product barcode and shows its Environmental Impact statistics such as: Electricity, water, trees, CO2 savings and other recycling stats.
Explain your idea in one sentence
An app that allows scanning products and shows the product's environmental impact.







The data shown will be collected from the manufacturers.
Update June 14th
Eyal Korzen has been working offline on the UI of the Recycluator. Thanks to his great contribution and help with the design of many features of the app, we have uploaded a few new images. Some more images will be uploaded in the next couple of days.
Refinement process
We looked at a pool of potential end users to test some of the Recyculator's features. We opened a "recylcing line" - we gave friends and friends of friends an option to call us and ask questions when facing a recylcing option. We recieved calls with questions about whether a product is recycalable and where it can be recycled. People that called were also asked if they would be interested in environmental impact stats. The data we collected in these calls wasn't inteneded to be sufficient for a survey and the people we spoke with may not be a representative sample, instead we wished to refine our hypotheses and get better ideas on the required data and process that would be used for the design of the Recyculator app.
Update May 20th: (how YOU can help us make the Recycluator great)
If you like the Recyculator (and if you don't), we'd love to hear any input you have. Specifically We would love assistance with the following:
1. Gamification- how to make the app fun and engaging?
2. Real world- virtual linkage. How do we connect the app to real world actions? Ideas on how to integrate the app with recylcing machines, how to collaborte with retailers and manufacturers, rewards programs etc.
Check out some of the great ideas that were built on this idea!
The app would have several benefits:
1. Product enviromental stats (as described above)
1.1 recycling impact per item (e.g: One coke can equals x CO2, Y Water and Z tree saved) ; this can be visulaized
1.2 annual global recycling impact stats (e.g. 60B aluminium cans recylced a year, equal to XXX CO2, YYY Water and ZZZ trees saved)
1.3 Other related facts (e.g: Recycling aluminum cans requires 5% of the energy required for making a new can from scratch)
2. Personal area
2.1 Recycling tracker (would track total recylcing amounts and allow users to add to the count items that are scanned by the app)
2.2 Points/badges- users can earn points for recycling activities and for promoting recylcing to others and get badges. For example, a user that recylced enough to save 100 trees can earn the "Tree Saver" badge. A user that sent the app to 10 other users to download can get a Recyculator ambassador badge etc.
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CommentArushi gupta