Got trash for recycling? Cebu-made app helps

Cebu Institute of Technology-University (CIT-U) students designed a mobile application to help consumers find junk shops that buy discarded house and office materials. (VIDEO GRAB FROM ACCENTURE YOUTUBE)

Want to know where to sell your old newspapers, bottles, batteries, electronics and other recyclable garbage in Metro Cebu?

Cebu college students designed a mobile application for a convenient directory to locate junkshops and solid waste management or waste recycling facilities.

Over 50 junkshops in cities of Mandaue, Cebu  and Talisay  registered for the test run of the application which runs on Android.

“We are working on increasing the number of junkshops and extending to other cities and areas in Cebu,” said Princess Lykken Abella, one of four app developers and an Industrial Engineering student of the Cebu Institute of Technology (CIT-University).

Their Team Spectrum won first prize in the App for the Future competition of the Accenture Technology Campus Challenge.

Joyce Marie Montegrande, a fellow developer,  said she had always wanted to contribute to address waste disposal in  urban areas.

Also part of the team are Antonio Sotto Jr. and Charlie Ahl Arreglo.

The contest encourages tech-savvy youth to think of application-based solutions to  environmental problems.

Golden Garbage caters to three users:  the general public, junkshop clients and entrepreneurial businesses.

The app provides the  location  of the junkshop or recycling facility that is nearest the user using the phone’s mobile GPS.

It also provides information such as the business name, store hours, contact information, accepted materials, and their buying price.

The application is free for regular users who want to sell their household or office scrap.

Those who operate junkshops are required to create an account and pay a subscription fee.

The entrepreneurial and the business users’ interface is  being improved  to include features so  businesses  can post lists of junk material so junkshops can see them and bid for the articles.