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iPhone Green App – EcoFinder and Haku Wale Help You Recycle

By AdamShake • Published June 16th, 2009 • Further Reading  

Haku Wale to Release “EcoFinder” iPhone App To Help San Francisco Residents Recycle and Dispose of Materials

EcoFinder for iPhone from Haku Wale on Vimeo.

Haku Wale has partnered with San Francisco’s Environment Department and leading mobile developers to provide information on recycling and proper disposal of materials via an application for the iPhone. The Department’s decision to open their “EcoFinder” data to developers via an XML feed has enabled unique collaborations between the green and web/mobile industries.

To help the City of San Francisco reach its aggressive recycling goals, Haku Wale has launched the City of San Francisco’s first iPhone app that uses data from the popular web-based EcoFinder tool. With the EcoFinder iPhone app, produced in partnership with SF Environment (the City’s environment department), Haku Wale is contributing to a growing array of green mobile apps that provide users with information to make lifestyle choices that are better for the environment. By using the EcoFinder database of local recycling and disposal services made available by SF Environment, Haku Wale and the City of San Francisco are embracing the emerging philosophy of Government 2.0.

San Francisco has pledged to recycle 75% of the materials that would otherwise go to a landfill. While the City has performed admirably with the current figure of 72% diversion, SF Environment is still working to get their message of recycling, reuse and proper disposal out to the public.

“The EcoFinder web tool has been extremely popular,” says Lawrence Grodeska, Internet Communications Coordinator for SF Environment. “San Franciscans really want to do the right thing with the unwanted materials in their lives, such as furniture, old electronics or toxic materials like dead batteries.”

Until now, the EcoFinder information was only available as a web tool on SFEnvironment.org, but Alan Wells, founder of Haku Wale, saw potential to increase the accessibility of that information. Wells explained, “Bringing the EcoFinder information to an anytime, anywhere platform like the iPhone will make it easier for local residents to recycle and dispose of their waste properly.”

The EcoFinder app is available in the Apple App Store and through www.ecofinderapp.com.

Source: EcoFinder

  • This is one of the better green apps for the iPhone. There are a bunch of silly ones, too. Thanks, Adam, for sharing the good ones.
  • Very cool! Especially with the strict enforcements SF is now putting out there.

    Hopefully more of these apps will spring up for all the major cities in the US to help promote more efficient recycling.
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