U.S. food supplier uses RFID technology to recycle waste
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American Kraft Foods (Kraft) has developed an item recycling program and made the following provisions: RFID technology tracks the use of empty containers and provides material incentives for consumers who participate in item recycling. Kraft Foods is the official food supplier of RecycleBank. Kraft’s customers are all over the United States. The company mainly uses the following technologies: When recycling garbage in recycling vehicles, it uses RFID technology to weigh the weight of the recycling bin and record the amount of the recycled content. user. Users can download cash coupons or other lottery coupons from the Internet based on the RFID record. The amount of cash or lottery coupons depends on the number of recycling.
RecycleBank claims to want to cooperate with some leading companies that have made outstanding contributions to environmental protection, select a company from each industry and give it the title of “official sponsorship”. Kraft Foods mainly sells products including Kraft brands and well-known brands such as Maxwell House coffee and Planters nuts. In recent years, Kraft Foods has spared no effort in reducing environmental pollution and advocating green environmental protection. One of them is their exploration and efforts in product packaging.
Using RFID recycling bins, consumers can put newspapers, cans, glass bottles, plastic containers, and other recyclables in them, put the recycling bins on the curb, and the recycling trucks will transfer the recycling bins away.
Elisabeth Wenner, Head of Sustainability at Kraft Foods, said: “We’re looking at ways to reduce the use of packaging that ends up being disposed of as waste, and encouraging recycling can help Kraft reduce the amount of packaging used by Kraft itself or other companies. RecycleBank has found an effective way to reward consumers who participate in recycling items, which is simple and practical.”
Gonen, founder and CEO of RecycleBan, said that RecycleBank officially launched the project in Philadelphia in 2006 and has since promoted it in the Eastern Seaboard area. So far, 70,000 consumers have joined the project, and it is expected that there will be 250,000 consumers. participate. The company provides an operating system for the whole city, which can better improve the existing recycling system. Municipal authorities pay implementation and usage fees, and have the right to decide whether citizens are paid for use.
Each participant can get a RecycleBank recycling box, one side of the recycling box is embedded with 134.2MHz (low frequency/LF) RFID active tags, consumers put newspapers, cans, glass bottles, plastic containers and other recyclable items in it, Then put the recycling bin on the side of the road, the recycling truck will automatically lift the recycling bin and put it in the car, an ID card corresponds to the data information of a participant on the RecycleBank system, and the RFID tag is responsible for transmitting the ID card data. Each recycling vehicle boom is equipped with a RecycleBank gauge provided by Avery Weigh-Tronix and McNeilus. The RecycleBank scale can measure the weight of the recycling bin and the recyclables inside.
An RFID detection device (designed by Avery Weigh-Tronix) on the rear of the recycling vehicle is located 12 inches or less from the recycling bin, and the device obtains its ID number when the recycling bin is emptied. The computer operating system is connected with the reader and the ruler, and the system records and stores the data of the reader and the ruler. After the recycling cart returns to the center, the RecycleBank laptop and transponder receive the data stored in the recycling cart and transmit the data wirelessly to the RecycleBank web server.
After that, consumers can log in to their personal accounts on the RecycleBank website to view their recycling records, as well as data on the amount of oil and trees saved due to recycling. The personal credit history will show the reward points consumers can get based on the amount of recycled content.
Consumers can earn up to 35 RecycleBank Rewards points each month, which can be exchanged for discount coupons with local companies and Kraft Foods.
Gonen said the use of RFID tags has been working well. Since the introduction of RFID, RecycleBank has adapted the system to minimize read and write ranges. Gonen revealed that if the reading and writing range is too long, the reader will simultaneously obtain the ID numbers of all recycling bins in the surrounding area. “Accuracy is very important to us, and we spend a lot of time developing the best possible labels,” Gonen said. It is for this reason that the company does not yet have a permanent label producer. As the order volume increases, products from manufacturers with large production scales will be used. Now they are using RFID tags from Avery Weigh-Tronix.
According to Gonen, a label has a lifespan of several years. “We selected some cities that hardly have any recycling system and recycled 40% of the waste generated in these cities.” What can’t be recycled goes to landfills.
The RecycleBank project is currently widely used in more than 35 autonomous regions in Philadelphia, Delaware, Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Jersey, and it is planned to be widely used nationwide by the end of this year. Gonen said RecycleBank has recycled nearly 360 million tonnes of waste from landfills so far.
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