Inspiration
While researching sustainability issues, we stumbled upon a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, food waste. Since food waste accumulates daily and minimizing it contributes to a more sustainable lifestyle, we decided that creating a digital process to minimize food waste suits the theme of the hackathon.
What it does
A user will input their groceries, the expiration date, and the price. Then, a list of the groceries will be displayed where the user can check off each item when it's either eaten or expired. Conscious Cart tracks the food that is uneaten/expired. It also provides methods for disposing of food waste in environmentally friendly ways.
How we built it
We used our previous experience in web design to create a simple to-do list website, which we converted into Conscious Cart. We added additional features such as more web pages.
Challenges we ran into
Originally, we wanted to use Python to implement a machine-learning algorithm that would read groceries and expiration dates from an image of a grocery receipt. However, we didn't know how to use Python in web development or how to combine it with JavaScript, so we had the user manually input their groceries instead. We also spent a lot of time brainstorming ideas and creating a project outline so we were rushed when implementing our ideas.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We're proud that we were able to collaborate productively and implement a website with functionalities that initially seemed difficult to create.
What we learned
We learned a lot more about using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript together to create a website.
What's next for Conscious Cart
We will implement a feature where the user inputs an image of their receipt and then Conscious Cart can read the products, rather than having the user input them manually. We will also add a feature that notifies the user when a food item is about to expire. Lastly, Conscious Cart will provide more tailored options for what the user can do with expired or wasted food.
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