Here at MacPaw, we believe in supporting initiative and spreading good practices among the team. That’s why when we introduced separate waste collection in our office, we aimed to get all the macpawians on board. Lectures, guest speakers, colorful posters, and detailed recycling guidelines – we tried it all to familiarize our colleagues with the system and motivate them to join the company’s recycling efforts. But something was still missing.
Being a software company, we solved this challenge with an app.
A group of particularly passionate about recycling team members put their heads together and decided to work on a prototype during the 2017 HackaMacathon – our annual 48-hour idea-generating and coding session. The project was called Trash-IT. That year it won both the first prize at the hackathon and the hearts of all the office residents, as it made separating office waste easier and more approachable.
For a while, the prototype lived on the office kitchen tablets. It spent its days assisting macpawians and visitors when needed, but then the time came for it to grow. We saw that others could also benefit from such a tool, so we decided to share it with people all around Ukraine.
A group of more than 10 enthusiasts worked on the new version of the app part-time for seven months within the MacPaw Labs program. The result of their work was Sort – a stylish personal recycling assistant. We released the app in September 2018 as one of the MacPawCares social initiatives dedicated to the company’s 10th anniversary.
Sort is a mobile app that helps you to dispose of your household waste with ease. It teaches about the waste types that can be recycled, shows the closest recycling stations, and sends its users news on nearby events concerning waste and the environment. It can also show custom recommendations on recyclables depending on the user’s location or the recycling station of choice. Sort’s database includes more than 130 types of waste. At the start, it could offer generic rules for separate waste collection and the exact guidelines for two recycling services in Kyiv. Three and a half years later the number reached 20 recycling services in 25 different cities of Ukraine.
Sort is also a useful communication tool for recycling services and stations. It’s a way for them to educate their visitors on what types of waste they accept and how it should be best prepared and delivered, and also to keep them updated on any guideline changes. We designed posters and stickers for the stations so that their visitors could find and download the app.
The app is MacPaw’s way of promoting sustainability and bringing recycling closer to people as well as supporting the recycling industry in the country. And it led to more fruitful cooperation. In January 2020 we purchased a new waste press machine for the No Waste Ukraine recycling station in Kyiv which was twice as powerful as the one they had before. It is now working hard to compress accumulated recyclables for easier storage and transportation to recycling facilities.
Recycling in Ukraine is yet to reach its peak and become a part of daily lives for the majority of Ukrainians. We are happy to be able to support this process and proud of the macpawians who are making it possible!
