ReUsables

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Context

Nearly one-third of all the food that's sold at grocery stores ends up in the trash when they reach their "use by" date, creating a massive food waste problem for the environment. These dates create a sense of urgency to consume the food, regardless of whether the food is still safe to eat or not. Additionally, some consumers may mistakenly believe that the "use by" date is a hard expiration date, when in reality it is only an estimate of peak quality and freshness.

Oportunity

Even if the food you buy in supermarkets has expired, it doesn't mean it cannot have a second life, as many of them have alternative uses that can be very useful in our lives. SuperMax, the biggest online grocery store in Puerto Rico decided to be part of the solution to create a behavioral change among consumers to reduce reliance on "use by" dates as the sole indicator of food consumption. Therefore, we took on the task of changing the negative perception of "use by" dates to a more positive one for the environment to generate conversation about the reusability of products to reduce waste.

Idea

We created an educational program called REUSABLES to showcase the alternative uses of products sold in supermarkets by using an augmented reality filter and computer vision, both on Instagram and the reusables.ai website. When you point your smartphone camera at the labels of participating products, the filter instantly transforms them into new ones to display their alternative uses once they expire, thereby preventing them from ending up in landfills. When the alternative uses are shown, you could visit the website to view the video tutorials on how to do the life hacks on each label.