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.

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Written by Goders

Updated on 21:17, Jun 18, 2014

Explain your idea in one sentence

An app that allows scanning products and shows the product's environmental impact.

Once the Recycluator app is downoladed to a smartphone, a user can scan a product barcode to see its environmental impact statistics.
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.

Describe how your idea would help form new habits and improve recycling at home

Consider this: does calorie count help your diet? Do price tags help you make sound economic decision? Similarly, knowing the environmental impact of recycling products will help our recycling habits. Dan has guests over and wants to keep the kitchen clean; though he normally tries really hard to recycle, he has one can of coke and it would be much easier to throw it with the rest of the garbage rather than keeping it for recycling. Dan scans the can of coke using the Recyculator app. He is then shows the following information: Recycling one can a day for a year, you save: 0.3 barrels of oil 0.1 Tons of carbon 224 gallons of water 75 Kilowatt hours 1,274,000 BTUs He is also shown a track record of all the cans he recycled. Dan wants to add this can of coke to the count... Knowing the exact impact of recycling the can, Dan decides to make the extra effort and recycle the can.

How might you design an early, lightweight experiment to further develop your idea?

Partner with a manufacturer (e.g: Coca Cola) and have them print some statistic on one of their products. Conduct a survey among end users to measure impact of the recycling statistics education on their recycling habits.

What aspects of your idea could benefit from the input of our OpenIDEO community?

*Calculator and measurements design (e.g.: number of trees saved or tons of paper); what scale to use (e.g.: stats per one item vs global stats) * App UI design * Manufacturers to collaborate with and implementation * Partner and integration with other apps (e.g.: an app that shows nearest recycling point) * App promotion and spreading the word

Written by

Goders

Team (17)

Alessandro Prati

Role added on team:

"Hi Alessandro, Thanks for your contribution. I'd love to have you on the team and help with further thinking or developing different aspects of the idea. Cheers!"

Goders

Stephan Kardos

Role added on team:

"Hey Stephan, would be great to have you on-board and help with brainstorming or any other aspect of further developing it. Please also applaud the idea if you liked it. This can help it get more exposure and give it a change to be developed."

Emma Hunt

Role added on team:

"Hi Emma, would be great to have you onboard and help with brainstorming or any other aspect of further developing it. Please also applaud the idea if you liked it. This can help it get more exposure and give it a change to be developed."

Jamie Beck Alexander

Role added on team:

"Hi Jamie Alissa, would be great to have you on-board and help with brainstorming or any other aspect of further developing it. Please also applaud the idea if you liked it. This can help it get more exposure and give it a change to be developed."

Tom Damiani

Role added on team:

"Hey Tom, would be great to have you on-board and help with brainstorming or any other aspect of further developing it. Please also applaud the idea if you liked it. This can help it get more exposure and give it a change to be developed."

Elito John

Role added on team:

"I would like to invite you to our team to add some beauty and brains"

Jes Simson

Gustavo Dolabella

Role added on team:

"Would be glad to have you on-board to share your thoughts on how to further develop this idea."

Timmy de Vos

Role added on team:

"Hi Timmy, thanks for your input on our idea. Would be great to have you on-board to help further develop it."

Denise Bartolome

Role added on team: