RecycleBank claims to work with companies that have made outstanding contributions to environmental protection and are leaders, choosing a company from every industry and giving it the title of “official sponsorship”. Kraft Foods Inc. sells products including the Kraft brand 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 promoting green environmental protection. One of them is their exploration and efforts in product packaging.
With the RFID recycling bin, consumers can put newspapers, cans, glass bottles, plastic containers and other recyclables inside, and put the recycling bins on the side of the road. The recycling truck will transfer the recycling bins away.
Elisabeth Wenner, Minister of Sustainability at Kraft Foods, said, "We are looking for ways to reduce the use of packaging. Packaging will eventually be treated as waste, and encouraging recycling can help Kraft reduce the amount of packaging used by the company itself or by other companies. RecycleBank has found an effective method for material rewards for consumers involved in recycling items. This method is simple and practical to operate."
RecycleBan founder and CEO Gonen said that RecycleBank officially launched the project in Philadelphia in 2006 and has since been promoted 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 city, which can better improve existing recycling systems. The municipality pays the implementation and use fees and has the right to decide whether the citizens are paid for use.
Each participant can get a RecycleBank recycling bin with a 134.2MHz (low frequency/LF) RFID active tag embedded on one side of the bin. Consumers put newspapers, cans, glass bottles, plastic containers and other recyclables inside. Then, the recycling bin is placed on the side of the road. The recycling truck will automatically lift the recycling bin into the car. One ID card corresponds to the data information of one participant in the RecycleBank system, and the RFID tag is responsible for transmitting the ID card data. Each recycling vehicle's boom is equipped with a RecycleBank ruler from Avery Weigh-Tronix and McNeilus. The RecycleBank scale weighs the weight of the recycling bin and the contents of the recyclate.
The rear of the recycling vehicle is equipped with an RFID detection device (designed by Avery Weigh-Tronix) that is 12 inches or less than the recovery bin and the device obtains its ID number when the bin is emptied. The computer operating system is connected to the reader and the ruler, and the system records and stores the data of the reader and the ruler. After the recycling vehicle returns to the center, the RecycleBank laptop and transponder receive the data stored in the recycling vehicle and transmit the data to the RecycleBank web server via the wireless device.
Thereafter, consumers can log in to their personal accounts on the RecycleBank website, view their recycling records, and data on the amount of oil and trees saved by recycling. Personal credit records show the reward points available to consumers based on how much they are recycled.
Consumers receive up to 35 points of RecycleBank bonus points per month, in exchange for discount coupons from local companies and Kraft Foods.
Gonen said that the use of RFID tags has been very good. Since the use of RFID, RecycleBank has adjusted the system to ensure the shortest read and write range. Gonen revealed that if the read/write range is too long, the reader will also get the ID number of all the recycling bins in the surrounding area. Gonen said, “Accuracy is very important for us. We spend a lot of time developing the best labels.” It is for this reason that the company does not have a fixed label manufacturer. As the order amount increases, products of 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 life span of several years. “We chose cities that have almost no recycling system and recycled 40% of the waste generated by these cities.” The non-recyclables are disposed of in landfills.
The RecycleBank project is currently widely used in more than 35 autonomous regions in Philadelphia, Delaware, Africa, Vermont, and New Jersey, and is expected to be widely used throughout the United States by the end of this year. Gonen said that RecycleBank has recycled nearly 360 million tons of landfills so far.
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