Riciclario
Simplify your life. Recycle right, every time.
What goes where. When it is collected. Why it matters.
We built Riciclario to close the gap between waste regulations and everyday life. Through native mobile app development, citizens scan a barcode, check the schedule and put the right bin out on the right day. Municipalities manage rules through an admin panel. Less contamination. Fewer missed pickups. A measurable step toward sustainability.
Six screens that cover the entire recycling journey.
Dashboard
Collections
ScheduleScan
MapWelcome
Barcode scanner
Waste dictionary
Collection calendar
Smart reminders
Drop-off map
6 languagesScan. Sort. Schedule.
Scan or search
Point the camera at a barcode or type a product name. The app tells you exactly which bin it belongs in and when that waste type is collected.
Check the schedule
View your municipality's collection calendar. See what is being picked up today, tomorrow and for the rest of the week.
Get reminded
Push notifications arrive the evening before each collection. No more missed pickups, no more wrong bins on the curb.
Native apps. Municipal-grade backend.
Mobile
Backend
Municipal complexity, simplified.
Every municipality in Italy has different waste separation rules, collection days and accepted materials. The app had to adapt dynamically to each municipality's regulations without requiring a separate build or manual configuration for each one.
We built a municipality configuration layer on the backend. Each city's waste rules, collection days and accepted materials are stored as structured data. When a citizen selects their municipality, the app loads the correct guidelines automatically. Adding a new city is an admin task, not a code change.
TARI tariff data is complex, region-specific and frequently updated. Integrating it in real time while keeping the user experience simple required a backend that could ingest municipal data feeds and surface them through a clean, searchable interface.
A TARI data pipeline ingests tariff information from municipal sources, normalizes it and stores it in MySQL. The app queries this data through a clean API, presenting tariffs by user type and zone. Updates propagate to all users within minutes of being published by the municipality.
Citizens needed a way to identify waste types instantly without memorizing categories. A barcode scanner and search dictionary had to return accurate sorting guidance in under a second, even for products with ambiguous packaging materials.
We integrated a barcode scanning engine that maps product barcodes to waste categories. For products without barcodes, a searchable waste dictionary covers thousands of items. Both return results in real time with clear visual indicators showing the correct bin color and collection day.
Questions before the first pickup.
Building a waste management app typically costs between $60,000 and $180,000 in 2026. A lean version with waste sorting guides and collection schedules starts near $60,000. A full build with barcode scanning, municipality-specific configurations, TARI integration, push reminders and an admin panel usually lands between $120,000 and $180,000.
Barcode-based waste sorting uses the device camera to read a product barcode, then looks up the product in a database that maps it to a waste category. The app returns the correct bin type, collection day and any special disposal instructions. Products without a match fall back to a searchable waste dictionary.
Yes. A municipality configuration layer stores each city's waste categories, collection schedules and accepted materials as structured data. When a user selects their city, the app loads the correct rules automatically. Adding a new municipality is an admin configuration, not a code change.
TARI data is ingested from municipal sources through a backend pipeline that normalizes the information and stores it in a database. The app queries this data through an API, presenting tariffs by user type and zone. Updates from the municipality propagate to all users within minutes.
The most effective strategy sends a push notification the evening before each collection day, specifying which waste type to put out. Users configure their reminder time in settings. The backend schedules notifications per municipality and per waste category so users only receive relevant alerts.
A recycling guidance app with native iOS and Android builds typically takes 4 to 6 months. Expect 2 to 3 weeks of discovery and municipality onboarding, 12 to 16 weeks of development covering barcode scanning, waste guides, scheduling and notifications, 2 weeks of beta testing with real municipalities and 1 to 2 weeks for store submissions.
A waste management app needs at minimum: a waste sorting guide or dictionary, a barcode scanner, a collection calendar synced per municipality, push notification reminders, user profile with location and zone settings and a basic admin panel for municipality staff to manage guidelines and schedules.
Multiple languages are handled through a localization layer that stores all user-facing text as translatable strings. The app detects the device language and falls back to a default. For Riciclario, we supported English, Italian, German, French, Spanish and Sardo, with the ability to add more through the admin panel.
Building a sustainability or municipal app?
We build native apps for waste sorting, collection scheduling and tariff management.
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