Industrial Ecology and the Digital Revolution
 

Using information technology
to make recycling and environmental management
easier and cheaper.

Funded by the US EPA Science to Acheive Results Program

Publications

“A Universal Code for Lifecycle Management of Products,” V. M. Thomas. Proc. IEEE Int'l Symp. Electronics and the Environment, 2007.

“Toward Intelligent Recycling: A Proposal to Link Bar Codes to Recycling Information,” S. Saar, M. Stutz, and V. M. Thomas. Resources, Conservation, and Recycling 41(1):15-21, 2004.

"Product Self-Management: Evolution in Recycling and Reuse," V. M. Thomas. Environmental Science and Technology 37 (23) 5297-5302, 2003.

"Toward Trash That Thinks: Product Tags for Environmental Management," S. Saar and V. Thomas. Journal of Industrial Ecology 6(2):133-146, 2003.

"Advanced Tags for Product Recycling," S. Saar and V. Thomas. Proc. IEEE Int'l. Symp. Electronics and Environment, May 2002 (pdf).
 

On-Going Research

3. Electronic monitoring of recycling

Recycling Box Working Paper

CueCat Barcode Scanners for Recycling

Motorola Bar Code Recycling Launcher
 

3. Physical limits of tags and readers in complex environments

Antenna systems for recycling or waste management operations
Antenna Working Paper
 
 

Background
Bar codes and radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags have become nearly ubiquitous. For more than two decades, virtually every product sold in a retail store has had a UPC bar code. At clothing and music stores, many products have radio-frequency anti-theft tags. Mail services use special bar codes to track packages and to make mail sorting more efficient. Manufacturers use bar code labels to record serial numbers and other product information. Drivers can use radio-frequency tags to pay tolls on the highway or to pay for gas.

But the use of product tags in the recycling, reuse and disposal industries is in its infancy. Recyclables and waste are still managed either in bulk, as with municipal waste disposal, or by hand-sorting, as with the recycling of electronic products.

Bar codes or tags could greatly increase the effectiveness of product recycling, reuse, and end-of-life management, providing benefits comparable to those already demonstrated in the manufacturing and retail sectors.

a. Increased recycling efficiency: Barcodes or tags on products could increase recycling efficiency in the same ways that these product tags increase efficiency in the retail sector. Tags on batteries, for example, could make the sorting of battery types for recycling more efficient and cheaper. Tags on electronic equipment could link to web sites showing how to dismantle the product. Tags on hazardous products, such as household chemicals, could identify the contents and how and where to dispose of them.

b. Incentives for good waste management: Product tags could make possible many kinds of incentives for recycling. By knowing when a recyclable (or hazardous or valuable) item is put in a recycling bin (or trash can or dumpster), it becomes possible to design programs to reward recycling, or to punish improper disposal. While recycling incentives, such as deposits on plastic bottles, are not new, an automated, tag-mediated approach can be very low cost and can provide small incentives for low value recyclables or targeted incentives for hazardous products or low-volume, high-value items. For example, a single curbside recyclables pick-up service could electronically manage a range of targeted rebate programs for different products, different consumers, and different geographic regions.