Just a small update regarding a bug fix, where previously on some of the map pages, the site footer was appearing on marker listings, obscuring the listings. This has now been fixed!
In other news, the site is now at 3130 markers!
Just a small update regarding a bug fix, where previously on some of the map pages, the site footer was appearing on marker listings, obscuring the listings. This has now been fixed!
In other news, the site is now at 3130 markers!
The E-waste and electrical items map is now live. I am still populating it, but there is a reasonable amount of markers to make it live. E-Waste pretty much covers anything with a battery or a plug. A sub-category includes old mobile phones. Note that many places have fees for the disposal of E-Waste, but will take phones for free.
In other news, we’re now at 2938 map markers. Very close to 3000 markers across RecycleMap!
Also, Waste Oil recycling and Childrens Car seats are still being worked on in the background. They will be coming soon, once I’ve worked through the majority of council facilities that would take them.
RecycleMap is now almost 6 months old. What started as a small project to help out my fellow Rotoruans, has turned into something with a national scope. There are currently 12 map categories, and over 2600 map marker locations. The frame of the site is now quite well established, and the site has been averaging a little over 200 visitors a month, with a total of 871 unique visitors since the site went live. I’m quite proud of this number, given that the site has not been actively promoted at this stage!
The next phase of the RecycleMap project will be to add more map categories. These will include waste oils, E-Waste, and child car seats, and probably a few more. The intention is to cycle through all the district councils again, revisiting the Resource Recovery Parks and Transfer stations, to add any other categories that each district covers.
Once that is done, I’ll begin reviewing the existing data, and tightening up the site. As this is going on I’ll also start ramping up promotion of the site to recycling facilities and schemes to help drive traffic to RecycleMap, and hopefully increase the number of location submissions provided. The overarching aim of RecycleMap is to have enough traffic, and enough user participation, that internet-trawling for recycling facilities takes a back seat to “crowd sourced” data.
If you have any thoughts on this, as always, I’d love to hear them!
A new location submission form is now live! This offers an improvement on the old generic contact form. All required information is asked for in a structured manner, making it much easier to submit location changes, as well as much easier for me to process them.
The Soft plastics map was one of the earlier maps that was populated with data. In the early days, the markers just pointed to drop off locations, store opening hours was a feature that was added later on as more maps and features were added to RecycleMap.
I’ve now gone through all 320 soft plastics location markers, and have added or updated the store opening hours for them. A few markers have also been removed as the stores have closed down.
Tweaked wording on the Batteries, Polystyrene, and Plant pot map pages. In addition, the markers for Mitre 10 stores have been updated to feature the “Mitre 10 Orange” to make the maps more user friendly.
All participating Resene ColorShops, Dulux paint centres, and Guthrie Bowron stores have now been added to the paint and paint container recycling map!
Markers are now being added to a new map category for Paint, and paint containers!
I am in the process of updating the map application that is at the core of RecycleMap, which includes changes to the user interface on the maps. Most are subtle, but please let me know your thoughts and feedback!
Hospice Op Shops have now been added. This brings the total number of locations on RecycleMap to 2045!
Vital stats for the different categories are:
Cardboard & Paper – 354 locations
Batteries – 258 Locations
Polystyrene – 34 Locations
Soft Plastics – 248 Locations
Glass- 336 Locations
Op Shops – 266 Locations (So far…Still have Presbyterian Support, Red Cross, St. Vincent de Paul, The Blind Foundation (Blind Low Vision NZ) and The Salvation Army Op Shops to add!)
Food and Beverage Cartons – 94 Locations
Tin cans – 350 Locations
Cosmetics – 74 Locations
Caps & Lids – 31 Locations