RFID Maximizes the Efficiency of Recycling and Waste Management

With costs rising at all points in the waste management process, shrinking landfill space, and growing consumer interest in recycling, RFID is enabling cities and towns across the country to foster recycling while improving the efficiency of their waste operations.

Taking advantage of RFID’s ability to reliably identify individual receptacles, municipalities can create incentive-based recycling programs that accurately reward customers for the amount they recycle, while minimizing the amount of trash headed for the landfill. By automating the collection of all waste, RFID can assure that individual bins have been collected, providing verification of service. In addition this information can be used to optimize truck usage and routes. With a fully automatic data collection system based on RFID, versus manual methods, customer billing processes can be streamlined and more accurate. 

Automated accuracy in all aspects of collection and disposal is a primary reason the recycling and waste industry is adopting RFID in the following areas. 

Incentive-Based Recycling: A handful of forward-thinking municipalities are already using RFID tags for incentive-based recycling. One recent example is the city of Philadelphia’s partnership with Recycle Bank. Philadelphia residents receive a bin fitted with a low frequency (LF) RFID tag that identifies each household. Recycling trucks are outfitted with a scale and a RFID reader. On recycling pick up day, a resident’s bin is placed on a scale, identified by the RFID tag and reader, and then weighed. The Recycle Bank system tracks how many pounds of recycling each household produces per month, and the households then receive Recycle Bank Rewards Dollars. Residents can redeem rewards dollars with more than 300 retailers.

Bill by Volume: Depending on the city or town, trash collection pricing structures vary from flat fee, pay-as-you-throw and pay-by-weight. As recycling efforts become more mainstream, municipalities may turn away from flat fee-based systems and charge customers according to the amount of waste they generate. RFID technology improves the accuracy and efficiency of bill-by-volume waste collection. As the fully automated truck lifts the RFID-tagged bin to empty it, the tag’s ID number is read and eventually processed into individual customer invoices. Trucks fitted with scales can add weight data for pay-by-weight billing as well. 

Specialty Disposal: RFID can also be used to identify, secure and verify items for disposal such as corporate documents destined for shredding or recycling, or hazardous waste that has to be hauled safely to an approved disposal site. Data collection can be accomplished with handheld devices that record each point of transfer and the information can be integrated with scheduling, work order and billing systems eliminating the need for manual or duplicate data-entry.

How RFID Works

It all starts with an RFID tag, which is designed in rugged plastic housing to protect it from rain, dirt and other environmental conditions. The tag is attached to the trash receptacle. A reader/antenna embedded into the truck captures the tag’s ID as each receptacle is emptied. Data collected from the tags, which can be linked with a time stamp, type of container, weight of the container, and customer information, can be sent directly to a host computer using 802.11 wireless connectivity or other wireless protocols. The data can also be stored in the truck’s onboard computer and later transferred to a central waste management system for data processing.

Tags can also be used to identify the trucks themselves. The unique code in a truck’s tag is read when it drives over an in-ground antenna as it arrives at the deposit facility. The data is passed to a central computer where the truck’s identity, load description and weight are recorded. 

Unlike barcodes, which require direct line of sight to be read and are easily scratched or damaged in the harsh waste and recycling environment, RFID tags do not require line of site, and can be read in milliseconds so they won’t slow down or otherwise interfere with the trash collector’s job. RFID tags and reader/antennas can be robustly designed, making them a more permanent form of unique identification that is automatic and more accurate than barcode technology.

RFID: Revolutionizing Product Tracking and Asset Management

RFID Solutions | Why RFID? | Application Overview

RFID Solutions

Partner with TI, the technology leader in application-specific RFID solutions, for turnkey end-to-end formulas for employing RFID in specific tracking models such as recycling, waste management, PCB tracking and high value asset tracking to name a few.

The integration of TI-RFid products into proven application models, in conjunction with Third Party Network Solution Partners gives customers the ability to adapt an end-to-end RFID asset tracking solution for their business, without costly mistakes or churn time. TI's RFID Application Solutions are state-of-the-art design and system models for unique vertical business needs that result in lower overall system cost and faster, more efficient roll-outs.

• Complete Integration: Proven field-hardened, end-to-end RFID System Reference Design makes for easier and more efficient rollout implementation, reduced overall system costs and faster time-to-implementation.
• Product Family: Learn more about the entire RFID Product portfolio, with specifics on LF, HF and UHF RFID models in specific applications.
• Tools & Software: Zero maintenance eco-system, qualified package UHF solution, brought together with qualified third party partners.

Why RFID?

In an increasingly fragmented, regulated, and uncertain world, Texas Instruments' (TI) RFID technology gives businesses, governments, and consumers a safe, private, and unobtrusive way to keep track of it all.

Consumers benefit from shorter lines at checkout counters, in hospitals, libraries, and gas stations because RFID fast-tracks them to the front of the queue. The can also benefit from lower prices because of the efficiencies RFID brings to the supply chain.

Business and institutions are turning to RFID technology as they comply with government product-tracking regulations, seeking to limit theft, reduce out-of-stock losses, strengthen brand loyalty, and make interaction with customers a more positive experience.

RFID is a mature, thoroughly tested technology. In most RFID applications, the period of trials, testing, and economic feasibility studies is over. Large-scale RFID system rollouts are underway.

RFID Application Overview

There are almost as many RFID applications as there are business types. TI has established a leadership position in these basic categories:

• Automotive - Auto-makers have added security and convenience into an automobile by using RFID technology for anti-theft immobilizers and passive-entry systems.
• Animal Tracking - Ranchers and livestock producers use RFID technology to meet export regulations and optimize livestock value. Wild animals are tracked in ecological studies, and many pets who are tagged are returned to their owners.
• Asset Tracking - Hospitals and pharmacies meet tough product accountability legislation with RFID; libraries limit theft and keep books in circulation more efficiently; and sports and entertainment entrepreneurs find that "smart tickets" are their ticket to a better bottom line and happier customers.
• Contactless Payments - Blue-chip companies such as American Express, ExxonMobil, and MasterCard use innovative form factors enabled by TI RFID technology to strengthen brand loyalty and boost revenue per customer.
• Supply Chain - WalMart, Target, BestBuy, and other retailers have discovered that RFID technology can keep inventories at the optimal level, reduce out-of-stock losses, limit shoplifting, and speed customers through check-out lines.

Almost from the beginning, TI was there: helping establish standards; supporting the RFID supply chain of inlay and label manufacturers; and consistently applying leading-edge semiconductor technology to the core of RFID, the transponder.

TI is unique among RFID semiconductor suppliers because it exercises complete design and manufacturing control over the entire transponder – a semiconductor chip and antenna. This value-add enables TI to offer a wider range of innovation whether it be in creative form factors, more attractive credit/debit cards, or technical issues such as read range and reliability.

Innovation has been the touchstone of TI's long history in RFID. It co-invented the smart tag, pioneered creative form factors such as key fobs, and executes its own antenna design.

TI's commitment to applying the best technology and supporting its partners has paid off. The 2006 RFID Marketing Strategies Report, a survey of more than 550 end users, providers, and prospects, ranked Texas Instruments as #1 in thought leadership and the most desired business partner.

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