Saanvi Rao wins Rep. Virginia Foxx’s 2024 Congressional App Challenge in North Carolina’s Fifth District

When asked what inspired the creation of EcoTronics, the student said, “There were a multitude of events that caused me to create this app, one of them being the growing attachment to technology – specifically cell phones – and my growing concern that the more corporations market new devices to younger generations, the more older forms of technology will be impulsively and improperly discarded. This unethical correlation is already becoming more prevalent in our daily society, and knowing how bad the conditions of global warming and pollution already are, I decided to step in and create an app that helps at least combat the surface of such pollution and overall really get users to ponder their overconsumption and lack of concern for our planet. Which leads me to my second inspiration – rather, overconsumption and its growing presence with the rise of social media. Nowadays, everyone is being influenced by the internet and certain social media apps to buy the latest thing, trendiest thing, the thing everything wants and everyone NEEDS. This proposes a problem not just to ordinary household items or trendy clothes, but to technology as well. While it is fairly simple to differentiate what to recycle, what to reuse, and what to discard when it comes to ordinary items, technological items is another story with the way it is produced and the more harmful chemicals it proposes to our planet. And unfortunately, many people who discard devices “normally” just don’t understand this. So, I made this app to bring awareness about the poison of overconsumption when it comes to technology, and how it can be combatted.”