PlasTick

Inspiration

As students at SCU, we are exposed to the best of what communities can do to promote recycling and waste awareness. We have landfill, recycle, and compost bins all over campus. However, we recognize that this is not commonplace. About 25% of people don't even understand the basics of recycling programs. Although this number is disheartening, we can look to it instead as an opportunity for growth. To make others more aware of how recycling programs work is the reason that PlasTick came to be, but we decided to take this project a step further.

What it does

PlasTick is a website that shares information on the recycling programs in the Bay Area. This is to help educate people on how the recycling process works. There is also a recycle tracking feature. Users can log in and record their plastic usage and waste, and the website will provide visualizations to help users understand their plastic consumption. After inputting your recycling data, you are rewarded with fun graphics to make you feel good about your intentional recycling choices.

How we built it

Frontend

By utilizing Figma, a design software, our we carefully designed an easy-to-navigate user interface (UI) that captured our own feelings about our chosen topic. Through HTML, we were able to bring this UI to life, allowing the user to click through our different pages and informational references.

Backend

By utilizing Flask and firebase we created a database and API that we were able to use to connect the front and backends together. Our backend is created on flask where we take in the data inputted by the users and calculate their total plastic usage.

Challenges we ran into

At first, we attempted to create a mobile app but since none of us had any experience with IOS/Android development, we decided to switch gears and focus on creating a webpage. We also had trouble with working with database, specifically Firebase. Although we figured out how to store the user's data in the database, we had difficulties with being able to manipulate and print said data. Another difficult we faced was as a result of our choice to use Flash, HTML, and Firebase. As first year coders, this was definitely a learning experience for all of us.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud that we were able to finally connect to Firebase. This was the first big task we achieved so it was a very sweet success. We are also proud that we have a final product, especially considering our inexperience with coding

What we learned

Git & GitHub,
How to utilize Flask,
Creating a webpage using HTML and Python,
Collaboration through Live Share in VSCode

What's next for PlasTick

For our society that is continuously more interested in being sustainable, PlasTick definitely has a future. As we work towards keeping plastics out of our environments, an app like PlasTick can also become a source of motivation. Similarly to apps like Garmin Connect or Strava, this app can be developed to connect you with your friends and family, allowing you to compete for the amount of items you recycle. This app could also become more scalable by allowing the app access to your location. The app could then be programmed to provide the user with recycling information applicable to the user, no matter their location.