Recyclify: Incentivized Recycling with Credit Benefits

Millions of people in the United States are held back from furthering their financial dreams because of a low credit score. As a result, they are unable to buy a house or car or77y establish their own businesses. At the same time, the world is in danger from preventable pollution in ocean garbage patches and landfills, hurting our ecosystems, harming our livelihoods, and holding back our sustainable economy. Meet Recyclify -- an incentivized recycling app that uses an AI recognition system to recognize when the user has recycled, and boosts the user's credit score by 1 point per item recycled, up to 720. When the user reaches a 720 credit score, they will have financial backing necessary to pursue their financial dreams and support their life and the lives of their families.

The average American household throws away 13,000 separate pieces of paper each year. Most is packaging and junk mail - all of which can be recycled! And in 2017, over 42 million people in the United States lived in poverty. Recyclify aims to reduce pollution in landfills and ocean garbage patches in the United States while simultaneously improving the credit scores of users. A lack of knowledge of how to recycle and a lack of meaningful incentives prevents people from recycling properly and regularly. Numerous other recycling programs that have been instituted especially fail to provide an incentive to recycle. Recyclify fills in both these gaps with a clear incentive for a specific demographic, while instilling pride in potential users that they are saving the world one recyclable item at a time. Since 2 out of 3 people do not yet know their credit score, and 2.7 million are too afraid to check it, Recyclify clears up any misconceptions and puts users on the right path to financial upward mobility.

Recyclify is targeted for generally low-income, underserved and underprivileged individuals, especially minority groups that seek to advance their financial futures and support themselves and their families. Within the first year, we plan to target such communities in the Northeastern United States. Since we are based in New Jersey, we will be starting there and expanding throughout the state and into other states along the Northeast as well. Within five years, Recyclify will expand throughout the remaining areas of the United States to bring our products to a national scale. Our primary focus is getting individuals who otherwise might not be able to participate in the global economy to do so and earn a healthy and sustainable lifestyle for themselves and for their families. We will be conducting primary and secondary research through interviews and online surveys to verify a need for our product, establish a customer persona, and pursue a Most Viable Product (MVP) for our first year.

Recyclify's innovative and one-of-a-kind AI recognition system will identify the traits and characteristics of an item and decide if it's recyclable. If so, it will determine the object's type, including the type of plastic by scanning the corresponding number on the item. Once the recycling is confirmed very quickly and easily, the user's credit score will automatically be increased by 1 point up to 720 points. The app can not be cheated because it requires users to physically manipulate or mark identical objects (i.e. two plastic water bottles) differently in order to prevent the user from recycling the same item over and over again. Our app will be on all major app marketplaces. We plan to use social media, advertisements, and personal selling to spread awareness of our product to target users. We will also make it clear to banks that this is a win-win situation: Banks receive more business from trustworthy individuals, and affected users receive more benefits.

Recyclify is different from other recycling programs in that there is a prominent and clear incentive to recycle, especially for individuals that want to improve their credit score in order to forward their financial futures. In addition, very few, if at all, recycling programs utilize AI or some form of advanced recognition system to identify if a person recycled correctly. The fact that the app also will be programmed to be foolproof is an added bonus and differentiator from competitors. An additional function of the app is that it automatically identifies the type of recyclable material and the type of plastic if the item is made of it. Evidently, if there is only one recycling bin for all recyclable items, Recyclify can distinguish items that are able to be put in the correct bin.

The core technology behind Recyclify is its sophisticated AI recognition system that identifies the type of recyclable item, and the ability to sort different types of plastics, in order to confirm the user recycled correctly. The algorithm can not be cheated, as it requires the user to mold or mark same items in different ways (such as writing numbers "1" and "2" on two identical plastic bottles) in order to prevent the user from recycling the same item over and over again. Once recycling is quickly confirmed, the app's connection to the user's bank account will automatically boost the individual's credit score by 1 point. The app will stop tallying at 720, where the user's credit score then will be enough to help support them in buying a mortgage, car, house, or establishing a business.

Millions of people in the United States do not have the credit score they need in order to convince banks and other institutions to loan them money. Recyclify gives them a tool they can use to start their journey in climbing up the American socioeconomic ladder and pursue their unique "American Dream", while at the same time saving the earth at the same time. Essentially, Recyclify is a double-edged sword that aims to solve two pertinent issues at the same time. In the short term, perhaps millions of individuals, especially those coming from underserved and generally low-income areas of the United States, are outside living their daily lives while actively recycling their consumables or picking random ones up from the street and depositing them in the correct containers using the app. In the medium term, users experience more pride and sense of accomplishment, better health, and better credit scores. These steps all fulfill our long-term goal of supporting the financial futures of the millions of underserved and generally low-income individuals of the US, while also saving the world by keeping millions of recyclable items out of landfills and ocean garbage patches. If only a couple million people end up using the app, and each of them recycle just one item, that's still over a million recyclable items that end up being reused in industries that are becoming increasingly open to repurposed items, such as recyclable plastic turned into clothing, revitalizing the circular economy.

Recyclify currently serves no users, as we are still developing our AI algorithm and app. Recyclify plans to serve at least 100,000 in one year. Within five years, we want to serving at least 1,000,000 people.

Recyclify's goals within the next year are to obtain initial funding and traction and commence our pilot program, obtain initial results and potential points of improvement, and expand throughout most if not all of the Northeast United States, meeting our goal for 200,000 clients. During this time, we will also be building our brand and reputation in order to allow us to form good word-of-mouth in and out of our customer database. Our goals within the next five years are to secure lasting partnerships with national banks and federal institutions in order to ensure the longevity of our product. Over the course of these next few years, our team will regularly revise the algorithm as necessary and possibly expand to more features.

Besides developing our app, website, brand, and forming partnerships with banks and federal institutions, our biggest challenge is connecting deeply with our customers. This can be especially difficult because the individuals that we serve are spread out all across the United States. In order to combat this awareness and logistics issue, we will be recruiting volunteers, using social media, advertisements, and personal selling to encourage use of our product within our potential customer database. This way, we can spread awareness about our product and service as soon as possible. Within the next five years, we will most definitely run into competition, some of which might also be national. In order to keep our product and service competitive, we will be expanding into more features, such as a personal improvement plan as to how to manage personal finances.

The development of the algorithm and the securing of initial funding to develop and grow the app are relatively easy to solve, as they are common aspects of entrepreneurship. Recyclify will enlist volunteers and utilize social media, advertisements, and personal selling to appeal to our potential customers in all the most popular outlets where they receive information in their busy daily schedules. Grassroots awareness of our app will lead to better word of mouth, which aids us in developing our brand. Finally, crowdfunding on Kickstarter or GoFundMe are cheap and easy ways to receive banking from a lot of people.

I am currently the only member on my team. I will recruit 2 other individuals onto my team, and they will most definitely be high-school students like myself. I am in charge of Strategy/Finance, another person will be in charge of Marketing and Branding, and one person for Technology/Operations.

I am best suited to lead Recyclify and my team because, as a successful education entrepreneur, I can bring my extensive knowledge of forming lasting relationships with people to the team. I founded my own tutoring company called Pinnacle Tutoring, where I tutor children in all academic and extracurricular subjects, such as STEM, English, Foreign Language, art, music, and debate, in program locations throughout the New Jersey area. I also use machine learning to analyze my students' performance data in order to analyze trends that indicate weaknesses and improve upon certain areas of learning. I already have had exposure to connecting with individuals on a large scale as well. I also think outside the box, as I am not governed by existing methodologies that might be outdated and inefficient in solving our goals. Having 3 individuals with skills in Marketing and Branding, Technology/Operations, and Strategy/Finance makes for a very balanced team.

Currently, we have no partnerships. My team will be in the process of securing partnerships with Skyline Technology USA to help develop our AI recognition system and angel and venture capital investors in the Greater Princeton area to secure initial funding. Within the next few years, we will also continuously work out partnerships with banks and federal institutions to make certain that we are following regulations and completely secure our business process from beginning to end.

Recyclify's key customers are generally low-income and underserved individuals within the United States that are motivated to forward their financial futures. These individuals desperately need better credit scores to increase their chances of buying a car or house, make a new credit or debit card, or earn better insurance rates. What better way to save the livelihoods of these people while also saving the world at the same time? Recyclify is an AI-powered app that recognizes when the user has recycled correctly, and boosts their credit score by one point up to 720 points. At that point, the user will know how to recycle properly and have the necessary credentials to apply for loans and mortgages.

Recyclify plans to acquire initial funding from venture capital and crowdfunding campaigns to aid in the development of our AI system and website. Afterwards, within the next few years, we plan to use sustained donations and grants and continuously raise capital by expanding our brand in order to sustain our company. Since we are a hybrid between for-profit and non-profit, we will use the capital and revenue that we do earn from ads in our app and donations and grants back into developing our product and scaling our company. We will also have partnerships with organizations that share our values of service to the community and loyalty to our customers. These partnerships will provide us with necessary funds in exchange for increase public exposure to those organizations on our app and website.

I am applying to Solve in order to, first and foremost, obtain some initial funding in order to help Recyclify get on its feet. I am certain that MIT Solve's diverse and educated cross-sector community will enable me to receive the professional guidance I need in order to rapidly scale my solution so as to reach as many underserved people throughout the United States as possible. Solve's database also includes people from countries I plan on to expand into later on down the road, such as Canada and Mexico, who also use credit score systems. In addition, Solve's mentors can help Recyclify navigate the complicated legal and financial path to working with national and local banks whom we am not familiar with. If I were selected, I would take full advantage and forever be grateful of the sheer number of resources and people I can draw upon to fulfill my lifetime goal and passion of serving the underprivileged and underserved.

Recyclify is open to partnerships with any organization that aligns with our rigorous sense of product quality and mission of helping the underserved and underprivileged. We are specifically looking for venture capital, angel investment, legal, and marketing organizations that can either provide funding or professional guidance or a combination of both, in aiding us in getting our company off its feet. We plan to do the programming of our app and website completely by ourselves, so there is no need for tech partnerships unless those organizations seek to help make Recyclify even better through new features and content.

Recyclify's core technology is AI. It uses an advanced AI recognition system that detects and confirms when a user has recycled a recyclable item, and through a direct connection to the user's bank account (which the user has to set up, of course) it automatically increases the user's credit score by 1 point up to the limit of 720 points, at which point the user will have a good enough score to apply for loans and mortgages in order to forward their financial futures. As a bonus, the AI will be developed in such a way in that it can not be cheated, as the user has to physically manipulate or mark identical objects (i.e. two plastic water bottles) in different ways to prevent the user from simply recycling the same item over and over again.

Where other companies and programs have failed to provide a clear and meaningful for consumers to recycle, Recyclify comes in as an app that not only advances the financial futures of those who need it most, but also saves the planet at the same time. Even if only a couple million users across the United States use our service, that's still a couple million recyclable items kept out of landfills and ocean garbage patches, where they harm our ecosystems and potentially take thousands of years to degrade. By recycling those items, we are nearing our goal of zero waste and to help meet the UN's 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. Those recycled items also go back into other industries that are increasingly becoming more open to recycled consumables, such as clothing and packaging -- revitalizing the circular economy.

Recyclify fully comprehends the fact that more and more companies are being started by highly motivated and forward-thinking women and girls from numerous industries and backgrounds. In keeping with the spirit that entrepreneurship and business should not be discriminated or restricted in any way, shape, or form, Recyclify aims to target motivated females and enable them to receive better credit scores in order for them to start their own businesses and support the livelihoods of themselves and of their families. Recyclify also looks forward to, in the near future, running leadership and networking sessions that cater to up and coming female leaders of industry, and bringing in current female leaders across a variety of industries to engage in meaningful discourse regarding their experiences.

Recyclify is an AI-powered app that automatically recognizes if a user has recycled correctly and increases the user's credit score by 1 point up to the limit of 720 points, which is enough for the user to apply for financial opportunities previously unfeasible to attain. The AI algorithm is coded in such a specific manner that it can not be cheated, as it requires the user to have to mark or mold two or more identical objects (i.e. two plastic water bottles) in different ways so as to prevent the user from recycling the same item over and over again.