GreenByte wins Rep. Jake Ellzey’s 2025 Congressional App Challenge in Texas’s Sixth District

When asked what inspired the creation of GreenByte, Aarit Kumar said, “As new technologies are introduced, people gaze at them with awe and rush to their stores, but what happens once that technology no longer works? They are carelessly tossed away without a second thought. For the longest time, people have talked about global warming and have labeled fossil fuels as its main cause. People constantly cite ‘Reuse, Reduce, Recycle,’ but these slogans are always targeted towards one main culprit: plastic. This focus on plastic and fossil fuels blinds the people from one of the world’s most pressing issues: electronic waste. By 2022, e-waste had become the fastest-growing waste stream in the entire world with a buildup of over 62 million metric tons, and from that, a measly 22.3% has been formally collected and recycled. 

“The rise of Artificial Intelligence will not help reduce these numbers either; in fact, I believe that the AI craze will ultimately empower an exponential increase in e-waste with the introduction of brand new technological products that everyone will want to get their hands on. Technology has become so deeply integrated into our lives, from our toothbrush to our cars, that we have not once taken a moment to pause and think about the long-term effects these products could have on our planet and its health. The average U.S. household has around 30 electronic products, and only 15% of e-waste is recycled in the U.S. This number is scarily low in comparison to the total amount of e-waste plaguing our planet. 

“After further research and coming across even more alarming statistics on e-waste, I knew I wanted to develop a website that would minimize the barrier of entry to recycling e-waste, making the process as seamless as possible. When recycling takes too much work and does not feel rewarding, people lack the motivation to do it. This is why I developed a website where users can identify any electronic device, learn how to dispose of it properly, and find unique ways to repurpose it with just the snap of their camera. I also included a map feature, as this would make it convenient for users to find e-waste centers nearby directly from the site itself. Along with this, I created the leaderboard, badge, and tracker system. With the culmination of all these features, users can feel a sense of accomplishment as they help make the world cleaner one picture at a time.”