Pinoy software developer made an app rewarding users for their plastic wastes!

Software developer Benjoe Vidal created an app called TrashCash to encourage recycling by giving incentives to its users.

TrashCash users can earn trash points when they collect and segregate their plastic garbage

An AI-driven solution to address plastic problems

According to Vidal, his goal in developing TrashCash is to help local communities effectively dealing with their ongoing plastic waste problem. He wanted to help prevent these synthetic materials from getting into rivers that would later end up in oceans.

A 2021 study published in the Science Advances journal, reported that more than a quarter of the rivers worldwide, accounting for 80 percent of ocean plastic pollution, are in the Philippines.

The 28-year old developer said that that the concept of recycling for profit is effective in dealing with the waste issue. With the assistance of his friends, Vidal made TrashCash, an app that allows people to earn money from their discarded plastics.

How does it work? TrashCash allows users to scan plastic wastes through their smartphones and collecting the items for proper segregation and disposal. It is using machine learning algorithms that can identify plastic materials and sort them into different categories once they are scanned. 

Aside from that, the app's objective is to orient, educate, and spur Filipinos into knowing the value and impact of their garbage on the environment. He added,

The basic idea of machine learning is when you scan the object, it will automatically identify specific types of plastic materials. So, through that technology, we want to help or educate the user that this plastic must be segregated.

Once they deposit the plastic materials to the nearest drop-off center, they will earn "trash points". These trash points are virtual reward points that may be accumulated in time. Later on, users can redeem them either as a digital wallet credit or in exchange for grocery items and other products from the TrashCash trade partners.

Benjoe Vidal explained that TrashCash plans to forge partnerships with local government units (LGUs) and officials from the barangay level to establish more drop-off locations for the plastic wastes collected by the app users.

Moreover, the system would provide additional income for the participating LGUs as 60 percent of the gross revenue from the sale of the collected recyclables will go to the local government.

The app was rolled out in December last year in Google Play Store but they are still working with a version compatible with iOS devices. In just about five months, TrashCash already has more than a thousand users.

To know more about this app, you can visit its official website and Facebook account.

 

Source: One News