Green Trade

A simple way to trade goods with fellow neighbors.

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Inspiration

Our team was inspired by the ideas of the economic and environmental sustainability that came from the bartering system, while at the same time thinking about the current COVID-19 pandemic and the extreme social isolation that comes with being quarantined. With these ideas in mind, we decided to seek a way to modernize the bartering system while also giving people a way to stay connected during this time of social distancing and have access to the means to acquire essential supplies.

What Green Trade Accomplishes

Green Trade functions as an application for a modernized bartering system among individuals who are seeking to trade goods. An individual interested in bartering may enter their name, location, the item they're in need of, and an item they would be willing to trade in exchange for said necessity. Then other individuals could see if they have a compatible trade item and need, and complete the trade.

Alongside the user-friendly list interface provided, Green Trade also incorporates Google's Maps API to provide users with an interactive map of their local area. This feature allows individuals searching for trades in their community to easily and efficiently track down compatible bartering offers.

For instance, say John wants toilet paper and will trade coffee beans he would then select the Add New feature and a modal would appear that would allow him to enter his name, location information, and the items he would like to trade. The application would then add John's information to the list of others seeking to barter and a red X with a circle would appear on the application until the trade is completed. Let's then say Jake who is trading toilet paper, and wants coffee beans notices John's listing and is interested. He would select John's name from the list and a modal would pop up confirming the information indicated by John and Jake would be able to select trade and the trade be complete. Completed trades are indicated by a green checkmark. Thus a Green Trade is complete.

This application is supposed to encourage people to develop a more sustainable lifestyle promoting a zero-waste philosophy. Currently, Americans throw out a staggering amount of unused goods annually. Financially, this equates to this $380 billion dollars going into the landfill each year, not including the amount of food waste produced. According to the U.S Food and Agricultural Organization 1.3 billion tons of food goes to waste annually. If we look at this from a financial standpoint brings light to the staggering loss of $680 billion dollars to industrialized countries each year.

How We Built Green Trade

Our application was built using React/Typescript in the Visual Studio Code Editor. Starting with the basic React project template and the MDBReact library we built our application from the ground up to provide the bartering service. The application also relies on Google Maps API to provide location-based services.

Challenges We Encountered

This project served as a learning experience for the whole team. We experienced many challenges ranging from the design of UI elements to incorporating arrays to manage user data in the table and initiating/completing trades.

Accomplishments We're Proud Of

Overall our team is proud to have been given the opportunity to design an application that may benefit members of our own community and potentially a much wider range of users across the world.

"I am quite proud of how the design of the web application looks considering this is the first time I have ever done anything like this ever. I enjoy the idea and concepts of design and color so putting this in a web-based application was new to me but fun at the same time." -Karli

What We Learned

We learned how to work as a team and incorporate our ideas into our project alongside one another and complete a functional project with the potential to benefit society within a limited time frame. We also learned how to collaborate with each team member having a specific task in creating this application.

"I learned so much this weekend as I had no prior experience doing this and it was neat to see an idea come to life and become something usable." -Karli

"I learned a lot about the implementation of React and the various uses of Typescript, as well as utilizing github to work on a project with a team, that will undoubtedly help me in future projects." -JP

What's next for Green Trade

Green Trade shows the potential to revolutionize the way goods are handled in communities, and potentially even the broader scope of countries and the world as a whole. Reducing waste will not only help save billions of dollars worth of product annually but help reduce the harmful effects of wasted materials on our environment and lifestyles. With the framework already implemented, Green Trade could be expanded to provide the opportunity to provide artisans and other skilled individuals to barter their goods and/or services for essential supplies.

Developing a user login system where users could create their profile. This login system would allow users to input their contact information in their profile. Then once the trade was accepted the two users would be able to contact each other and establish a meeting location.

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