Meet Reloop. Over a month has passed since the announcement of the six shortlisted teams at the Bristol Green Capital Digital Challenge’s 48-hour hackathon.
And with less than 6 weeks until the final, we caught up with another of the shortlisted teams to delve into their thoughts about the hackathon!
- You may like: Profile: Super Trash Heroes
Ecodesk software developers Joshua Eke, Chris Wormall, Robert Price, Andrew Karkut and Michael Chappell created Reloop, a website devoted to connecting businesses who could benefit from each others waste resources.
Using a similar model to online-dating, the team has aptly named the idea ‘resource-dating’. This is the idea that organisations and technical experts who might not otherwise connect can use the site to be ‘matched’ with others across the supply chain to stimulate the innovative use of waste products.
“Many of the solutions to the reduction of waste resources to date have been hampered by a lack of knowledge”
As developers at business sustainability consultants Ecodesk, the team already has a great base of both technical and environmental experience and expertise to work from and, given a theme of ‘resources’ to develop their idea for the competition, the team explained how important they felt this issue was in creating a greener future in Bristol and beyond. Team-member Andrew Karkut added:
“There is a widespread detachment that most people and businesses have from the over-use of resources. Many of the solutions to the reduction of waste resources to date have been ad-hoc and piecemeal and have been hampered by a lack of knowledge.”
A community platform
Speaking to team about the benefits of this kind of platform, they made it clear that their strategy is as much about creating a buzz in the industrial community as it is about reducing waste.
“The platform will be used to spread good news stories about the sustainable and innovative use of by-products”
Andrew explained: “As well as matching the ‘waste’ outputs from one industrial process to the inputs of another, the platform will also be used to spread good news stories about the sustainable and innovative use of by-products.”
“This will hopefully lead to technical partnerships across sectors where previously organisations would have been unlikely to ‘get it on’!”
Challenges ahead
Reflecting on the first round of the Bristol Green Capital Digital Challenge event, Andrew told us: “The talks were inspiring as they brought home the many, diverse environmental problems that need to be tackled. We also enjoyed conversations with like-minded individuals and sharing knowledge with other competing teams.”
“We hope to significantly reduce the amount of waste going to landfill”
Aware of the scale of the environmental issued faced in the industrial sphere, Andrew explained how the scale of the research they need to undertake is proving to be one of the biggest tasks they’re facing on the lead-up to the final in April. This involves defining exactly what a by-product consists of, as well as working out the best way to create an intelligent matching system for the companies looking to get involved.
Undeterred, Andrew went on to explore the teams ambitions for the future: “We hope to make a software tool that helps the circular economy to become a reality and significantly reduce the amount of waste going to landfill.”
Thanks very much to Andrew for speaking to us about the project. You can stay up to date with the team’s progress by following Ecodesk on Twitter at @EcodeskNewsFeed. The final for the challenge will be held at the Bristol 2015 International Youth Summit at the Colston Hall on 20 April.
