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Earning frequent-recycle miles
Who wouldn't like cash for their trash?
Knowing this, New York-based RecycleBank – employing radio frequency identification (RFID) technology from Texas Instruments (TI) – is galvanizing recycling programs across the U.S. by rewarding households with retail coupons when they recycle.
The model is simple and compelling. RecycleBank contracts with municipalities to share any savings from lower landfill costs. Then it equips homeowners with a recycling cart retrofitted with a TI-developed RFID tag. The tag connects the cart to household information.
When the recycling truck grabs the cart, it weighs how much paper, plastic and aluminum it contains. That information flies wirelessly to a computer and later to RecycleBank, where it earns points for the household. Points are translated into coupons for items at local coffee shops, bookstores and retailers.
"It's a great program," said Rafael Mena, TI Americas marketing manager for RFID. "Cities benefit in the sense that they are paying less for landfill space, plus a homeowner sees a financial benefit."
For its innovation, RecycleBank has won awards from the National Recycling Coalition and the Social Venture Network.
Nearly two decades of RFID experience
Founded in 2003, RecycleBank turned to TI in 2007 for RFID technology that could withstand trash-can life: falling to the ground and withstanding hail, snow and windstorms.
Radio-frequency identification is a method of identifying objects based on a small embedded chip and a reader. Much like the magnetic strip on the back of a credit card, the RFID chip provides a unique identifier for an object. Better than a credit card, though, the RFID chip does not have to be precisely positioned near the scanner in order for the information to transmit.
Texas Instruments has 19 years of RFID experience, including 11 years in waste management technology.
TI and RecycleBank chose an off-the-shelf, low-frequency RFID tag and an integrated reader installed on the truck's weighing scale. Similar TI technology has been used to weigh trash in Europe and to maintain chain-of-custody information on cattle.
Blistering growth
RecycleBank is a for-profit company that earns money when it helps divert trash from landfills. For instance, if a city is currently spending $7 million a year on landfill costs and RecycleBank cuts that figure in half, that's a savings of $3.5 million. Its fees come out of those savings.
Between 2007 and 2008, RecycleBank doubled in size to serve 90 communities and 210,000 homes. The company is poised to double again in 2009.
Further, RecycleBank says that when communities use its program, recycling rates skyrocket. For instance, homes in Cherry Hill, N.J., increased their recycling from 12 pounds a week to 26 pounds.
By the end of 2008, the company estimates that it had diverted more than 60 million pounds of recyclables from the waste stream, saving more than 600,000 trees and 45 million gallons of oil.
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