Femi Adisa has always been aware of the environmental impact of his consumption. Growing up in a household committed to protecting the environment by discouraging waste and reusing material goods as much as possible, the 20-year-old business analyst, software engineer, and entrepreneur always knew that didn’t just want to start a business, but wanted to do so in a way that would positively impact both the environment and his local community.

“There wasn’t too much going around in the first place, which helped me develop the mindset that the end of a thing’s life could be the start of another, be it humans or plastic,” he says of his Maryland upbringing. “That has always led me to make conscious choices that positively impact my environment, or others around me.”

Adisa is the founder of Recycenter, a Maryland-based recycling program and eCommerce company dedicated to “making sustainable living easier for the average person.” The ambitious venture aims to make it easier for underserved communities to recycle through in-person and mail-order collection options that reward participants for their efforts.

The recycling program is complemented by an eCommerce store that sells clothing, jewelry, and other goods made from eco-friendly materials. Adisa says that he started the online store to help encourage people to be more mindful about their consumption, whether or not they already participate in his recycling program.

Adisa turned to Wix as an eCommerce solution that allowed him to get his business off the ground quickly, without having to build everything from scratch himself. “I loved the fact that I could just sign up and get started with some templates,” he says. “I could set up the very basic layout of the website in less than a day.”

As the project has grown, Adisa has come to rely on Wix, Velo and JavaScript for managing problems of scale. His eCommerce shop, which is built with Wix Stores, currently displays inventory from two separate third-party retailers, with plans to add other eco-friendly retailers in the future. To do this, he used Velo to map the products to their respective stores with a multi reference field in a join table. “Without Velo, we wouldn't be able to have set up the store pages to be linked to their products,” he says. “That's a major place where Velo saved the day.”

We spoke with Adisa about his vision for Recycenter and how he’s using Velo to build on the out-of-the-box solutions already provided by Wix with custom code.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q&A with Femi Adisa, Founder of Recycenter

Q: What was the initial inspiration behind Recycenter? Where did the idea come from?

A: I grew up in an environment where waste was discouraged. There wasn't too much going around in the first place, which helped me develop the mindset that the end of a thing’s life could be the start of another, be it humans or plastic. That has always led me to make conscious choices that positively impact my environment, or others around me.

Growing up, I was learning more about plastic pollution, and about how there are very low recycling rates in the US. I thought about what could be done and how I could help. It actually started with me personally. At first I wasn’t recycling much. I was struggling with it and I was looking for ways to recycle it better myself. I finally went with rewarding myself for recycling. The reason that I was finding it hard to recycle was because I didn't have easy access to recycling. And I wasn't really motivated to recycle.

To address those two problems, I set up the recycling can very close to my room. Instead of throwing the plastics into trash, I started throwing them into the recycling bin, and I set up a rewards schedule for myself. It was like, “Okay, now I can watch some more Netflix.” I set up a reward structure for myself to make sure that I have the motivation to keep on recycling.

I noticed that that was working pretty well. And so I thought, “Hey, this could also help others. And that led me to starting Recy. It started as a platform to help others recycle more. Now it’s grown into a platform for helping people live more sustainably.

Q: It sounds like Recy started in a pretty traditional, organic way. How did the idea come to you to start an eCommerce site? What was your initial vision for the online presence and the business?

A: So it started purely as a recycling program that would help more people recycle easier. It's going to be a mail-in recycling program where people can send their recyclables to us in exchange for rewards. But as I learned more about how to help out, I realized that recycling is only a part of the fix.

The root cause of the problem is because we're using more and more products that aren’t environmentally friendly. That's why we’ve incorporated the eco-friendly store into the site, reducing the amount of plastics and non-eco-friendly products being used in the first place. Because when waste is reduced, we will have more capability to recycle. But even apart from that, when we use more eco-friendly products, then there's less waste produced in general.

Q: Cool, totally. I know you have a background in web development, but when you were thinking about what this would look like online, how did you come across Wix? And how did you determine what tools you wanted to use to build out the web presence?

A: When I had the idea to build a website for Recy, I started with a React landing page, just React and Netlify. And then when we came to the time to build out the MVP, I was looking for just a very quick way to build it out and show the idea to the world to get started.

I was looking at tools for MVPs and startups, and I came across Wix. I've always heard about Wix, but I haven't personally tried it. So I was like, “Okay, let's give it a go.” I loved the fact that I could just sign up and get started with some templates. I found a template that really matched what I was looking for. I could set up the very basic layout of the website in less than a day. Since then, I've always used Wix.

Q: That's really cool to hear. You mentioned using React, but did you have much experience with JavaScript at that point? Did building the site out make you want to get more involved with JavaScript, Velo, and Wix?

A: Yeah. When I got started with Wix, I was pretty proficient in JavaScript, and was working as a software engineer. But when I got started with Wix, I started using Velo, and that exposed me more to JavaScript. And that helped deepen my understanding and explore some more APIs, and other tools that I haven't used before.

Q: What were some of the APIs that you were using to build the site?

A: Most of the tools I used to build out this site were Wix tools, because, again, this is an MVP. But some of the other projects that I’ve built using Wix use other APIs like SendGrid for sending out emails.

Q: I know that you mentioned earlier using Wix Data API for the database collections. And the whole eCommerce is built on Wix Stores, right? Do you want to talk a little bit about what you're using the database collections for and how they’re integrated with Wix Stores?

A: As I continued building out the website and started using Wix Stores, I needed to use Velo to add some more functionality to the store. That was where the database collections really came into play. I used that to create the stores. Because on this site, we have a stores page where we list out the stores that we partner with. Very soon, that will be updated to include most small businesses that we partner with.

We're saving those in our database. We're also storing the associations between those stores and the products. So we can link the products to the stores that they belong to. And so that our customers can go to the store page on our site to view their products and interact more with the stores.

Q: Cool. So the stores that are listed on recycenter.com/stores, those are the third parties that you partner with?

A: Yeah, that's right. There will be even more small businesses as we grow.

Q: That's cool. So I know that you're based near Baltimore, Maryland. But this is a national effort with a recycling component and the eCommerce Store. What has it been like growing the business and handling that recycling stuff on the ground? Have you gotten orders from around the country and the world with the eCommerce store? What has that been like?

A: It's been fun so far. The store functionality is live. The recycling program is still in the market validation phase. We’re still getting more people to sign up for the program and sending out updates. But yeah, it's been great having access to a nationwide and worldwide web of users, because we have visitors from the UK and from Ireland regularly. That has been a great benefit of having this website.

Q: Are there different recycling rules or programs in different countries? Is that something that's ever come up?

A: So right now, we are still starting with the US and within the US, we've [selected] a few different communities. We have these centers planned for each community where they send their recyclables. We definitely haven't gone the international route yet, but that's something that’s in the works.

Q: Can you explain a little bit more about how the recycling program works? I know there's a short description on your website, but what does that process look like for somebody who might want to get started recycling with Recy?

A: To get started, you can go to recycenter.com/recycle. If you're in a city that we’re already working in, we’ll send you some Recy boxes, which we have in small, medium, and large sizes. You can put in your recyclables in these boxes, which have labels specifying what kind of recyclables go in each box. When your Recy box is full, you just let us know through the app.

If your city has a recycling day, you put it out just like you take out the trash, and then we'll pick it up. But if your city doesn't have a recycling day, we'll send you a label and have you mail it to us.

Q: You mentioned an app, which I saw referenced on the website. What are you using for the app? Is that a mobile app for iOS or Android?

A: Yeah, so it's gonna be a mobile app that users can use to easily track their orders. The app will also have a store component in it, and will allow them to track how much waste they produce and how much they recycle.

Q: That's super cool. With Wix and with Velo, were there any issues you encountered as you were coding out the site that Velo helped you solve with some JavaScript ingenuity and engineering resourcefulness. Did it meet all of your needs?

A: Yeah, totally. There were multiple instances where I needed to add some extra functionality to the app. Being able to use Velo really helped. [To give one example], the stores list that I have that we have at recycenter.com/stores. Without Velo, we wouldn't be able to have set up the store pages to be linked to their products. That's a major place where Velo saved the day. On the store pages themselves, there are lots of custom text that we put up on the site. Velo was very helpful for that as well.

Q: The store pages individually look really good from a design perspective. How did you form these partnerships with these third parties to sell their products? How did those relationships come about?

A: I met most of those stores through apps on the Wix App Market. There are a number of apps in the Wix App Market that help us drop-ship. I went on Etsy as well, where there are a number of Etsy retailers that sell eco-friendly products. And so yeah, I reached out to them [and said], “Hey, I really love your products. I want to promote them on my site.” And yeah, they give me approval to add the products to the site. Wix has a lot of apps that really helped me to discover more retailers to [help grow my business].

Q: That's cool that you're using the Wix marketplace in that way. So with drop shipping, you don't have to have a lot of stock on hand, right? That kind of makes your life a little bit easier.

A: Totally, totally. And yeah, we use a complete drop-shipping model, where the customer places the order, and they would send it to the supplier and the supplier sends the goods to the customer.

Q: Cool. What does that process look like for you as a business owner and an engineer? Does it require a lot of work to file that order to the business that they’re ordering from and the drop-shipping center? Or does the Wix App Market simplify it?

A: Thankfully, it's not so complicated. There are some Wix apps that are really helpful. DropCommerce, for example, also has the functionality that also orders the products that the customer orders on the front-end. So when the customer places the order on the front-end, it auto-orders on the back end. I just go in to review the order and make sure everything is correct. Sometimes I have to manually place the order as well. But it's yeah, it's nothing so much, given the fact that this is what I wanted to do.