‘Am I Recyclable?’: Local College Seniors Develop App to Help
By Nolan Hyman
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CLINTON, New York (WKTV) — When it comes to certain items, you might not know if they should be recycled or tossed in the trash.
Three Hamilton College students designed an app that can help.
For their senior project, Computer Science students Mia Wrisley, Ricaldo Lewis and Angel Apollos designed the app, AmIRecyclable-OHSWA.
It was made in partnership with the Oneida-Herkimer Solid Waste Authority.
The app works by scanning an item and it tells you if it’s recyclable or not.
You can also browse a photo gallery of recyclable and non-recyclable items.
For example, the app will tell you that a plastic bag cannot be placed in the recycling bin.
It also features a kids version, where they can test their recycling knowledge.
To create the app, the three students worked with Visiting Assistant Professor of Computer Science Wenbo Wang and Hamilton College environmental studies lecturer Alma Lowry.
“Our goal is not just to focus on coding, we want to solve real-world problems,” said Wang.
Lowry met OHSWA recycling coordinator Eileen Brinck over the summer at the Clinton farmers market; from there, the idea fell into the laps of Apollos, Lewis and Wrisley.
After making a series of prototypes, they launched the app in December.
“Just because of how accessible it can make the recycling information, so if somebody is really into recycling, they want to do the best they can. They can just put it right on their smartphone and then they have that information right there at their fingertips,” said Brinck.
She said recycling information on an item aren’t always the same as local guidelines. This can make it harder for the recycling center.
“Whenever someone wish-cycles, it makes it so that the entire batch of recycling actually costs money to the recycling center,” said Wrisley. “So, the importance of people understanding what is truly recyclable in the community because it varies by what region you’re in.”
To download the app, you can find it on the app store for iPhone or the Google Play store for Android.
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