RecycleBall aims to turn the chore of recycling bottles into a competitive basketball game.
In Israel, plastic bottles are collected for recycling in public recycling bins spread out across the city. To encourage people to take their bottles to these bins, RecycleBall instruments the bins with sensors and a game console, making each trip to the bin part of a large-scale networked competition.

How does it work? By inserting bottles, users are first tested for their speed, and challenged to break their own and others’ personal recycling pace records. In addition, their recycled bottles are counted towards their city in head-to-head competitions against other cities. Finally, the global impact of their recycling is calculated and presented to them.

Our prototype works on motivating users on three levels: the personal (competing for speed), the group (helping your city win against other cities), and the global (contributing to the environment). It thus emphasizes the strength of a collective group of recyclers over a single person toward a cleaner and healthier environment.