Making recycling sexy for the masses is a tall order for anyone. But Boston-based Greenbean Recycle is stepping up to the challenge, creating a fun and competitive game for MIT students.
Making recycling sexy for the masses is a tall order for anyone. But Boston-based Greenbean Recycle is stepping up to the challenge, creating a fun and competitive game for MIT students.
A new article on CNN points out that the company has tinkered with a massive recycling machine on MIT’s campus, allowing it to award points. Before students pour in their recyclable materials into the machine, they enter their phone number via a touch screen interface. After that, the machine keeps track of how much the student has recycled, and uploads the data to Greenbean’s website, which recyclers can use to keep track of their process (sort of like how RunKeeper works) and even use to set up competitions with their friends.
According to Greenbean CEO Shanker Sahai, competitions between MIT’s fraternities have been particularly effective at getting students to recycle, a promising first step towards his company’s success. “We want to be like the Zynga of recycling,” Sahai stated.
Chalk up another win for gamification. To read more about Greenbean’s project, as well as other groups that are working to make trash and recycling more fun, head over to CNN and check out the whole article.
