Trash Cam

Trash Cam Logo
Trash Cam website
Picture of the contraption

Inspiration

Thirty to forty percent of food produced in the United States alone ends out being thrown away while people on the streets still struggle to find a sustainable food source. This waste leads to an increase in world hunger, greenhouse gas emissions and even increased cost of garbage collection. Nobody enjoys throwing away food, so why isn't there a way we can give our extra food away? One man's trash is another man's treasure.

What it does

Do you have food you don't want? (me too) Do you want to throw away that food? (me neither) What we provide is a place to give your food away in a simple and satisfying manner. All you have to do is take the picture and scan the QR code. We will take a picture of the food and post it to our twitter account and our website link. That's it no account needed, no food wasted.

Did your bakery make too many bagels? Did your wedding reception not eat as much as you'd planned? Just post on TrashCam and say goodbye to your food waste problems.

How we built it

We used a real-time database called firestore provided by google cloud services. A computer using a Kinect will take a picture of the food and using the real-time database capabilities, we will update all of our mediums on what food you just dropped off.

Challenges we ran into

Explaining why we are taking pictures of trash.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of the snappy backend and seamless integration. The satisfaction of seeing your food on our twitter and live on the website for everyone to drool over is what makes this experience so much more enjoyable.

What's next for Trash Cam

We hope to build a network of these trash cams to better suit the needs of people who need food but don't have the money to afford it. The location services make it easy to find free food near you.