Who we are
Our team, AppCycle, consisted of 8 students from various academic fields, all unified by a shared commitment to enhancing Munich's environmental conditions, with a particular focus on re- and upcycling initiatives within the city. In line with this, we developed an app designed to inspire users to transition their daily routines into more eco-friendly habits.
Background of the project
Nowadays, humanity consumed a huge amount of fossil fuels to maintain the standard of living and produced its consumption goods. As a consequence of the matter, too much waste was produced. Nature suffered - humanity acted ignorant. Different studies proved the increasing waste production on the entire planet, even in well-developed countries such as Germany.
Why did humanity behave this way? What had to be improved to reduce waste production? How could people be reached and convinced to change their waste management? As it turned out, all of us were seriously concerned with and interested in these questions, although we were all engaged in very different fields of studies. In the context of "TUM:JA," we got to know each other, found this severe environmental concern of ours, and decided to team up for developing an artsy project to improve humans' rate of waste consumption. For nature, the most favored waste consumption - of course - was prevention of waste. But if avoiding waste was not possible, the actions reducing, reusing, or recycling should be chosen.
Watch this video to find out more about our project.
Main Goal
After conducting research and contacting various companies and professionals experienced in the field of waste management, we arrived at the conclusion that numerous opportunities for re- and upcycling already existed. Nonetheless, a significant lack of actions and habits in people's lives regarding re- and upcycling was evident. The main reasons for this were lack of knowledge, laziness, and the immense effort required to find the above-mentioned opportunities and information.
Based on the results of our research, we decided to develop an app, named AppCycle, aiming to integrate re- and upcycling into daily life and encourage a shift towards more sustainable behaviour. The app was intended to simplify the process of gathering information, particularly about artistic upcycling projects, and further motivate users to monitor their waste consumption.
Functions of the app
The app provided an interactive map of Munich, where, for example, recycling stations, repair cafés, eco-friendly shops, etc. could be found. Additionally, there was a calendar that contained information about interesting events such as flea markets or exhibitions regarding environmental topics. The centrepiece of the app was going to be a newsfeed where users could share their ideas for upcycling as well as like and comment on other posts. This way, the user could easily reach out for possibilities reusing one's waste instead of throwing it away. Since those ideas often led to the production of artistic gadgets out of former waste, the newsfeed also linked AppCycle with that year's call "Technology and Arts".
Current state
Our team divided into four subgroups to achieve more detailed research on our planned App. Up to that point, we had contacted a variety of experts on the topic of up- and recycling, such as professors, organizations, and other app creators. After receiving their review on our mockup, we felt ready to proceed towards finalizing our planning. Also, our programming team had recently started implementing the first steps of the App.
TEAM
- Sophie Schwarz
- Silvia Bergt
- En-Hsin Chung
- Ario Dastmaltschi
- Lena Litzenburger
- Maximilian Passek
- Junianna Zatsarnaja
- Nina Zuber
TUTORS
- Konstantin Ritt
- Bernhard Häfner