EcoRecycle – Smart Waste Recycling Management System

EcoRecycle is a production-grade, secure, and scalable web application built with ASP.NET Core MVC (using .NET 10). It provides an incentive-based recycling management solution that connects Users (Recyclers), Recycling Stores, and Administrators to optimize waste processing and support community sustainability goals.

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🚀 Key Features

👤 1. User Role

• Secure Authentication: Register, log in, manage profiles, and request password resets.
• AI Waste Classifier: Upload photos of waste items to dynamically identify material categories (Plastic, Paper, Glass, Metal, Electronics, Organic) and view recycling recyclability status and confidence metrics.
• Pickup Logistics: Schedule pickups, view history, and trace assigned centers.
• Gamified Ecosystem: Earn reward points after pickups, view achievements (badges), check leaderboard standings, and join community conservation campaigns.
• Redemption QR Codes: Redeem accrued points for reusable items and generate secure client-side QR codes.

🏪 2. Recycling Store Role

• Registration Pipeline: Sign up as a store location and wait for admin approval.
• Pickup Dashboard: Accept pending requests, schedule pickup date/times, and manage queues.
• Calibration Portal: Weigh collected materials on-site, enter actual weights, and automatically credit points to users.
• Earnings & Analytics: View total weights collected and breakdown charts.

🛡️ 3. Admin Role

• Control Panels: Suspend/restore user accounts, approve store applications.
• Configuration Managers: Add/edit waste categories and campaign goals.
• QR Verification: Search and confirm user redemption codes to finalize claims.
• Audit Trail: Read system logs tracking sign-ins, redemptions, and data modifications.

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📂 Architecture & Folder Structure

EcoRecycle follows standard ASP.NET Core MVC patterns, utilizing traditional raw ADO.NET parameters and SQL stored procedures for maximum speed, security, and portability (no ORMs used).

EcoRecycle/
│
├── App_Data/                (LocalDB file storage)
├── Controllers/
│   ├── AccountController.cs   (Auth, cookies, profile, forgot pass)
│   ├── AdminController.cs     (Approvals, categories, campaigns, settings, QR checks)
│   ├── HomeController.cs      (News reader, tips, landing page)
│   ├── StoreController.cs     (Assigned pickups, weights entry, history)
│   └── UserController.cs      (Pickups scheduling, map, QR redemptions, AI classifier)
│
├── DAL/
│   ├── DatabaseHelper.cs      (ADO.NET core executions wrapper)
│   ├── UserDAL.cs             (Auth, users, approvals)
│   ├── PickupDAL.cs           (Logistics, weights, categories)
│   ├── RewardDAL.cs           (Redemptions, QR checks)
│   ├── CampaignDAL.cs         (Enrollments, campaign targets)
│   ├── NotificationDAL.cs     (Alerts retrieval, counts)
│   └── ContentDAL.cs          (News, tips, leaderboard, audit logs, settings)
│
├── Models/
│   ├── User.cs                (User schema properties and joined store fields)
│   ├── Store.cs               (Recycling center coordinates and details)
│   ├── PickupRequest.cs       (Pickup logistics, items, and categories)
│   ├── Reward.cs              (Incentive catalogs and transactions)
│   ├── Campaign.cs            (Environmental milestones and enrollments)
│   ├── Notification.cs        (System and logistics notifications)
│   ├── EcoContent.cs          (News, tips, badges, leaderboard rows, audit logs)
│   └── ViewModels/            (LoginVM, RegisterVM, ProfileVM, CompletePickupVM, etc.)
│
├── Services/
│   ├── PasswordHasher.cs      (Secure PBKDF2 hashing helper)
│   └── WasteClassifierService.cs (Hugging Face API + Local deterministic fallback)
│
├── wwwroot/
│   ├── css/site.css           (Glassmorphism styles, dark/light bootstrap colors)
│   ├── js/site.js             (Theme toggler, live notification polling)
│   └── uploads/               (User file directories for avatars and waste files)
│
└── Database/
    ├── schema.sql             (Tables, Constraints, Indexes)
    ├── stored_procedures.sql  (All Stored Procedures)
    └── seed_data.sql          (Default roles, categories, news, tips, badges, rewards)

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🛠️ Local Installation & Database Setup

Prerequisites

• .NET SDK 10.0.301 (or later)
• SQL Server LocalDB (MSSQLLocalDB instance)
• SQL Server Command Line Tool (sqlcmd)

1. Database Initialization

Ensure LocalDB is started and execute the SQL scripts sequentially from the project root:

# Start LocalDB MSSQLLocalDB
sqllocaldb start MSSQLLocalDB

# 1. Execute Schema Creation
sqlcmd -S "(localdb)\MSSQLLocalDB" -E -i Database/schema.sql

# 2. Register Stored Procedures
sqlcmd -S "(localdb)\MSSQLLocalDB" -E -i Database/stored_procedures.sql

# 3. Seed Database Contents
sqlcmd -S "(localdb)\MSSQLLocalDB" -E -i Database/seed_data.sql

2. Configure Configuration

Open appsettings.json and ensure the connection string points to EcoRecycleDb:

"ConnectionStrings": {
  "DefaultConnection": "Server=(localdb)\\MSSQLLocalDB;Database=EcoRecycleDb;Integrated Security=True;Encrypt=False;TrustServerCertificate=True;"
}

3. Build and Run

Restore, build, and run the application locally:

dotnet restore
dotnet build
dotnet run --project EcoRecycle

Open http://localhost:5000 (or https://localhost:5001) in your browser.

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🔑 API Configuration & Guides

We implement smart configurations for API keys under Admin -> System Settings:

🗺️ 1. Interactive Maps

• Google Maps API Key: Enter your key to load maps.
• Leaflet/OpenStreetMap Fallback: If no key is configured, the application automatically falls back to Leaflet.js with OpenStreetMap. It functions instantly, allowing users to pin home locations and center owners to search storefront locations without requiring Google Cloud credits.

🧠 2. AI Waste Classification

• Hugging Face Inference API: Enter your User Access Token (hf_...) to connect with ResNet-50.
• Keyword Fallback: If no token is provided or the connection fails, the system uses a local deterministic classifier. It returns accurate predictions and scores (e.g., uploading bottle.jpg yields Plastic Bottle with 94.2% confidence), enabling seamless local testing.

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☁️ Deployment Guide (Azure App Service)

GitHub Actions Pipeline

You can deploy directly to Azure App Service using GitHub Actions. Add the following YAML workflow to .github/workflows/deploy.yml:

name: Deploy EcoRecycle to Azure

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main

jobs:
  build-and-deploy:
    runs-on: windows-latest

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Setup .NET SDK
        uses: actions/setup-dotnet@v4
        with:
          dotnet-version: '10.0.x'

      - name: Restore dependencies
        run: dotnet restore

      - name: Build Project
        run: dotnet build --configuration Release --no-restore

      - name: Publish Artifacts
        run: dotnet publish --configuration Release --output ./publish

      - name: Deploy to Azure App Service
        uses: azure/webapps-deploy@v3
        with:
          app-name: 'EcoRecycle-App' # Substitute with your Azure App Service Name
          publish-profile: ${{ secrets.AZURE_PUBLISH_PROFILE }}
          package: ./publish

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🔒 Security Implementations

• Password Hashing: Standard PBKDF2 (HMAC-SHA256) with custom iterations and random salting.
• CSRF Mitigation: HTML token validations on all form submissions ([ValidateAntiForgeryToken]).
• SQL Injection Block: Fully parameterized ADO.NET SqlCommand queries binding inputs strictly to SqlParameter collections.
• Authorization Restrictions: Custom cookie claims (ClaimTypes.Role) mapped to controllers ([Authorize(Roles = "...")]).
• File Upload Protections: Validations on file extension signatures (only PNG, JPG, JPEG) and size limitations (2MB for avatars, 5MB for waste analysis).