Have you ever walked up to a series of recycling bins and ended up standing there for five minutes confused about which bin your items should go in or if the item is even recyclable? Believe it or not, confusion about recycling is common in the U.S. The lack of country-wide recycling standards means that it's up to local communities to decide on how to run their own recycling programs. Often the burden is placed on individuals to build the knowledge and self-efficacy to recycle correctly.

User Pain Points

People who want to recycle are concerned about what materials can be recycled and where to recycle. Finding information online about recycling often means searching on multiple websites and navigating city or municipal sites. These sites are clunky, outdated, and don’t always offer clear answers about what can be recycled. According to a 2019 survey, 62% of respondents in the U.S. worry that lack of knowledge causes them to recycle incorrectly (Waste 360). When items that are not recyclable are sent to a recycling facility, those materials contaminate items that could otherwise be recycled into new products. Contaminated recyclables ultimately end up in a landfill or burned. It’s important to address concerns about waste by making information about recycling accessible so that people are empowered to recycle correctly.

Feedback

Our preliminary user research which explored recycling behaviors and motivations revealed that not knowing what can be recycled in a given city is a major barrier to recycling with confidence.

Landing on a Solution

The goal for this product is to enable users to access and share geographically targeted recycling information. We hypothesize that individuals knowledgeable about recycling rules in their area are more likely to share that knowledge with others. Our product will allow individuals to not only share local knowledge about recycling, but also help others learn how to recycle, thus building confidence to recycle effectively.

Early Prototypes

The Solution

Recyycle is a crowdsourcing web application that allows users to share local recycling information. We help individuals find answers about where and what to recycle. With Recyycle, users will spend less time searching for local information and build confidence to recycle with ease.

Want to try it but don't want to create an account?

username - cojava6660@godpeed.com

password - recyycle

Recyycle has two key features:

Location Based Search

Adding Facility Information

We’ve received promising user feedback showing that Recyycle is useful. Our users even offered great suggestions on what they would like to see Recyycle do in the future. Users described Recyycle as clean and straightforward.

We are still figuring out our next steps as a team but our Product Manager, Amanda, hopes to continue this product as she sees the importance in empowering individuals to share their recycling knowledge with others.

Acknowledgments

We want to acknowledge Leonardo for jumping in and developing Recyycle. We also want to acknowledge Dhruvil Patel for his efforts and in helping with the product conceptualization process.

Learnings

Product Manager Learnings:

Amanda Araiza

When under pressure to deliver, I learned how to pivot to help ensure the success of the team and product
I learned how to run user interviews and usability tests alongside my designer
I learned the importance of prioritizing our team’s work and learning how to make tradeoffs

Designer Learnings:

Maribel Sierra

I learned you can achieve a lot by setting realistic goals towards designing an MVP in collaboration with my team
I learned to lean on my ability to be flexible and adapt my designs to changing needs as our team uncovered user feedback
I have a better understanding of how my work as a designer can harmonize with developer and PM goals

Designer Learnings:

Jo Sturdivant

Adapting to an Established Team: Joining the team in week 6 of 8 was challenging, as I had to quickly adapt to existing workflows, dynamics, and goals. This mirrors real-world situations where you often integrate into teams mid-project, and flexibility is essential.
Work-Blocking for Efficiency: With only two weeks to complete the project, I learned the importance of a structured work-blocking system. This approach allowed me to manage my time effectively and meet deadlines under pressure.
Making Data-Driven Design Decisions: Unlike my past projects, I had to rely on research conducted by others. This was a valuable experience in using pre-existing data to guide design decisions, helping me focus on the core insights without starting from scratch.

Developer Learnings:

Leonardo Avelino

Developer Learnings:

Vanady Beard

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As the back-end developer, I learned how important it is to create efficient and reliable systems that support the entire application. This experience also taught me the importance of optimising the database and ensuring the backend is scalable and easy to maintain.

Developer Learnings:

Stephen Asiedu

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As a back-end developer, I've come to understand the importance of being familiar with various database systems and modules. This knowledge enables me to build diverse applications and maintain versatility in my work. I've also learned that the responsibility for making the right choices rests on my shoulders, guided by my best judgement.

Developer Learnings:

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Developer Learnings:

Maurquise Williams

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Process of Creating an MVP: Developing a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) taught me how to focus on delivering core functionalities balancing between essential features and avoiding scope creep.
Collaboration in a Real-World Tech Setting: This experience taught me how to collaborate efficiently in a fast-paced tech environment, keeping the team aligned and productive, even while working remotely across time zones.
Sharpening Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving Skills: This experience honed my ability to think critically and solve problems efficiently. By tackling challenges and finding quick solutions, I sharpened my decision-making and troubleshooting skills in a dynamic, real-world setting.

Developer Learnings:

Jeremiah Williams

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All in all this experience was very awesome I learned that in coding with others being transparent is key

Developers Learnings:

Justin Farley

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I learned how important communication is when working with a team. Communication provides understanding, advice, ideas, and much more. While working with the product team, I’ve found that communication keeps everything flowing smoothly. Working with a team also showed me that every member brings something different to the table and we all have to work together in order to align and meet our end goal.

Full Team Learning

As a team, we learned to be flexible, to respect working on a team you are less familiar with, and appreciate working to solve a service design problem space

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