Inspiration
This generation must deal with the consequences of the older generation's choices. One of those consequences was microplastics, small plastic debris less than 5 mm in length. When plastic is dumped in the ocean, it breaks down into microplastics instead of degrading and can have disastrous results for ecosystems and marine wildlife. With fast fashion trends and a consumer-led economy, we want more people to be aware of the consequences their spending habits can bring to the environment.
What it does
Blue Knot is a Google Extension that should alert the user when the product they are viewing on a shopping site contains materials that produce microplastics and estimate how much pollution in mg it can contribute a year.
How we built it
We utilized VS code and VS code Liveshare to code and collaborate together on the project. We used many references from the internet, especially from https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/.
Challenges we ran into
Many of the challenges we faced were due to the complex nature of obtaining data from the specific part of the website that contained the material information. We kept encountering CSP(Content Security Policy) errors when trying to use Puppeteer the web scraper to gather information. Overcoming this challenge was not possible within the time frame, but otherwise, functionality was possible.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We are proud to be able to come up with a general equation to calculate the amount of pollution in mg of microplastics per year.
What we learned
We learned many new facts about microplastics while researching for the project.
What's Next for The Blue Knot - A Google Extension
We want to expand the functionality of this extension beyond Uniqlo and work on prominent fast-fashion websites such as Shein. We want to reach more people and bring awareness to this pressing issue so that we can start focusing on the future and put our best foot forward.
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