Frequently asked questions

RecyclingNet is a web app — there's nothing to download from the Play Store or App Store. You install it straight from your browser, it takes about 15 seconds, and afterwards it opens full-screen from its own icon just like a regular app.

🤖 On Android (Chrome):

1. Open Chrome and go to recyclingnet.org.
2. A banner or pop-up saying “Install app” or “Add RecyclingNet to Home screen” usually appears on its own — tap it, then tap Install.
3. If you don't see the banner: tap the ⋮ three-dot menu (top-right corner), choose “Add to Home screen” (on some phones it says “Install app”), then confirm.
4. The RecyclingNet icon appears on your home screen — open it from there from now on.

🍎 On iPhone / iPad (Safari):

1. Open Safari (it must be Safari — Chrome on iOS can't install web apps) and go to recyclingnet.org.
2. Tap the Share button — the square with an arrow pointing up, at the bottom center of the screen.
3. Scroll down the share sheet and tap “Add to Home Screen”.
4. Tap Add (top-right). The RecyclingNet icon appears on your home screen.

Tip for iPhone users: installing to the home screen isn't just cosmetic — iOS only allows push notifications (like “a collector accepted your request”) for web apps that have been added to the home screen.

RecyclingNet connects people who have deposit recyclables (cans, glass bottles, plastic bottles) with local collectors who pick them up and redeem the deposit refund. You photograph your items, our AI counts them, a collector comes to get them — and the refund value goes to work: collectors keep it as payment, or 30% goes to a charity you choose. You never handle money; you get the convenience and the environmental impact.

Three types of deposit containers, which our detection model recognizes automatically:

• Aluminum cans — pop, beer, sparkling water, etc.
• Glass bottles — wine, beer, and other deposit glass.
• Plastic (PET) bottles — water and soft-drink bottles.

Give containers a quick rinse and, ideally, group them in one spot (a bin or bag works great) so the photo captures everything in a single frame.

Refund values depend on your province's deposit-return program, and the rate is locked in when you submit a request. In Ontario right now:

• Aluminum can: $0.10
• Glass bottle: $0.10 flat — Ontario actually pays $0.10 under 750 mL and $0.20 over, but our AI can't yet tell bottle sizes apart, so we use the lower figure rather than over-promise.
• Plastic bottle: $0.00 — Ontario's deposit program doesn't cover PET bottles today. We still count them (they matter for your CO₂ impact), and provinces that do pay a plastic deposit will see a real value here.

When you submit a photo, our computer-vision model detects and counts each can, glass bottle, and plastic bottle, and draws a box around every item it found. You'll see the result within seconds.

Then you have one tap to make: confirm the counts look right, or flag them if something's off. Flagged photos go to a human reviewer who corrects the labels — you'll get a notification when that's done, and the corrected count becomes the one that matters. Every correction also helps train the next version of the model.

Home pickup: for recyclables at a place you control — your house, your work. You pick a saved address (or add one), and the collector comes there. Best for the bag of cans growing in your garage.

Outdoor / street pickup: for recyclables you spot while out — a bin of bottles left at the curb, cans in a park. Your photo's GPS (or your phone's location) pins the spot so a collector can find it. You don't need to stay with the items.

Collectors are approved RecyclingNet members who pick up requests in their area and redeem the containers at the deposit return. They keep the refund as payment for the trip (minus any charity donation you've chosen). Every account — requester or collector — is reviewed by our team before it's approved, and both sides can rate each other after a pickup.

No — and that's by design. The deposit refund is what makes it worth a collector's time to come to you, so the service stays free for you. What you get: your recyclables gone without a trip to the depot, a running tally of your environmental impact (CO₂ prevented, items diverted), and the option to turn 30% of every refund into a charity donation.

In your profile, you can choose to donate: pick a charity from our curated pool (health, animal welfare, environment, children & education, community) and every new request you submit pledges 30% of its refund value to that charity, with the collector keeping 70%. The donation is realized when the pickup is confirmed collected, and your home dashboard tracks your lifetime donated total. You can switch charities or turn donations off any time — it only affects future requests.

No continuous tracking, ever. Your location is captured only at the moment you submit a request — from the photo's GPS data or your browser's location (with your permission) — so the collector knows where the pickup is. That's the only time. Full details in our Privacy Policy.

They're used to run your pickup (the collector sees what to expect) and to train our detection model so counting keeps getting better. We never sell them or use them for advertising, and we never publish them. Keep the frame on the items themselves — avoid capturing faces, license plates, or mail. More in the Privacy Policy.

Go to your Profile and enable push notifications — your browser will ask for permission once. You'll then get a heads-up when a collector accepts your request, is on the way, and confirms the pickup. On iPhone, remember: notifications only work after you've added the app to your home screen (see the install question above).

Sign up normally and mention in the “why do you want to join” box that you want to collect. Our team reviews collector applications by hand while the pilot grows — if approved, your account is switched to collector mode and you'll see the live pickup queue with each job's payout, distance, and item counts.

Every request has a built-in message thread between you and your collector — use it for coordination (“bins are behind the gate”). If there's a real problem after collection — wrong counts, items not collected — open the request and file a dispute. An admin reviews every dispute and gets back to you.

Yes, any time — contact us and we'll remove your name, email, phone, and saved addresses so the account can no longer identify you. Pickup records and photos are kept (anonymously) for the platform's history and model training — the Privacy Policy explains exactly what's removed and what's retained.