TrashCam | Your Personal Guide To Recycling
TrashCam is a mobile app which helps to reduce the amount of unsorted waste in the environment. The app finds matching garbage bin for your trash. Take a picture, scan the trash and see what kind of materials were used to produce the packaging.
Miksi tämä kokeilu on tarpeellinen?
Citizens and tourists of different Finnish regions are still lacking the knowledge on waste sorting and recycling. The purpose of this experiment is to examine the amount of waste consumed by the citizens of a certain municipality (Uusimaa region) and analyse whether the amount of mixed waste can be reduced gradually with the help of TrashCam. (We have interviewed 200 hundred Finns to find out whether they face any struggles with recycling. 90% of the interviewees responded that they are very often confused and put emptied packages into the mixed-waste bin whenever they're not sure, what type of packaging it is exactly, whereas most of that packaging is either plastic, metal or even bio-waste). Eliminate the amount of unsorted waste in the environment; build consumers' awareness of mixed waste.
Miten kokeilu toteutetaan?
Providing the guidance on waste sorting, will, eventually, liquidate all the unsorted waste in the environment of Päijät-Häme region. Later on, the experiment can be scaled up and performed around Finland. Eventually, the number of recycled waste will increase to as much as 100%. 1. Create a treatment group (residents of one household) 2. Make a research of garbage containers in the yard of the household, analyse the amount of waste sorted inappropriately 3. Guide the residents on how to use TrashCam 4. Make sure they use it for 1 month continuously 5. During the experiment, keep tracks on garbage containers in the yard 6. After 1 month, interview the residents to find changes in their recycling habits 7. Make a report about the changes of unsorted waste in the garbage containers and the decrease of the amount of mixed waste. Second half of 2019.
Kuka tai ketkä kokeilun toteuttavat?
TrashCam team with the help of HSY.
Mikä on kokeilun kokonaisbudjetti ja miten se jakautuu maksajatahoittain?
The experiment itself doesn't require any investments, since we will do all the research work and we already have all the required material for that, such as camera, laptop and scales for documenting the process of the experiment. However, over EUR 7,000 would be needed for the development of the app, its testing and uploading to Google Play and App Store. We are going to invest part of it with our own savings. We are also aiming to minimise the amount of waste that could be made in the process of the experiment, so no pamphlets or paper will be used for spreading the required information among the residents. We'll try to make the whole experiment as much digitalised as possible. This will help to save money and, not to mention, the environment. EUR 2 ,500 for the database GS1-Synkka will be needed to create the app.
Millaista osaamista ja rahoitusta kokeilulla on käytettävissään?
Statistics on recycling in Päijät-Häme region that one of us has been gathering for over 2 years; during environment-related experiments in Lahti. That said we think that the process of TrashCam experiment will go smoothly. At the moment we are developing TrashCam bot which can be used as a beta version of an actual mobile application.
At the very beginning TrashCam will have a really simple design and only one function - scanning the product and offering the right garbage bin for it (mixed/ bio/ metal/ hazardous or energy waste). The app will be further developed if we get more funding, hence, evolving into an educational sustainability platform with more functions, such as, environmental news, map of recycling points as well as some reusing tips, supporting different languages. Recycling points will be awarded from playing a game inside of the where you can even challenge your friends to recycle more (scoreboard with facebook friends).
