How technology can help increase recycling & reach European targets

The EU has set itself a challenging goal of reducing landfill to a maximum of 10% of municipal waste by 2030. There will not be a single solution to achieving this, but recycling will have to play a significant role. In the UK over the last two decades, the household waste recycling rate has increased substantially from 11% to almost 50%, but this is still far behind other European countries. Even post Brexit, the UK government has said that it intends to continue to adhere to the same EU environmental targets. So, what can we do to increase recycling and how can technology help? 

Consumers say they are keen to recycle, but admit they are overwhelmed by the amount of information being given and put off by the hype. They see many brands and retailers announcing environmental initiatives and some turn out to be misleading, commonly known as ‘greenwashing’. One example was when McDonald’s publicised the introduction of ‘eco-friendly’ paper straws that were not actually recyclable! Another example was the bamboo toothbrush. There is also a lot of noise in the media declaring that all plastic is bad, so we must change to using paper bags…but again this does not give the complete picture. Paper bags get wet and break, are heavier than plastic to transport and bulkier in landfill where they are sent if contaminated, as well as contributing towards deforestation. Of course, brands need to think carefully about the entire life cycle of their packaging materials, but even if the chosen packaging is recyclable consumers are still confused about what can and can’t be recycled.

RFID (Radio Frequency Identification), NFC (Near Field Communication – the technology commonly used when making contactless payments) and flexible electronics could help alleviate this issue. An RFID inlay embedded into a package could have a unique identifier (UID), stored in an integrated circuit (IC), enabling item-level tracking and interactivity. This smart packaging can be used to allow consumers to access information specific to that individual product - before, during and after purchase - such as provenance, promotions, and how and where to recycle it in their local area - all with a simple tap of an NFC enabled smartphone.

We could go further and incentivise consumers to recycle. For example, a smart recycling bin that gives the consumer credits for how much is collected – an extension of the reverse vending machines (RVMs) that are in use at Tesco and by Coca Cola. Promoting positive behaviour rather than the negative ‘pay as you throw’ schemes, which propose to charge for the amount of unsegregated waste. RFID technology could also be used for helping to sort the waste when it reaches municipal facilities. Rather than relying on traditional barcodes, which are printed on labels and are often problematic for systems to read, RFID is more reliable and makes it possible to mass identify items quickly.

It’s important to answer the question of whether RFID/NFC makes packaging more difficult to recycle. As outlined above, the technology is added to packages via inlays – usually placed under the graphic label or attached to the box or bottle. Advances in adhesive technologies by the big label manufacturers, such as Avery Dennison and UPM Raflatac, have resulted in labels (and inlays) that cleanly float off during the recycling process so they can be separated from plastic bottles. In the case of glass going through a crushing process, the labels and inlays are burnt off when the glass cullet is melted. For cardboard packages Smurfit Stone demonstrated that the inlays and labels could also be easily separated in the pulping process. The small amount of remaining substrate aluminium can be used in a similar way to the polyal waste from aseptic packaging.

So why is RFID technology not already widely deployed? RFID is well-established and growing rapidly in certain applications, for example apparel, with over 10 billion items tagged last year. However, the value of these items is relatively high so the extra cost of RFID can be justified. RFID inlays with traditional silicon integrated circuits are costly and rigid, making them unsuitable for introducing intelligence into FMCGs (fast-moving consumer goods), such as food and beverages, personal care and household products. Fortunately, there is a new era in flexible electronics, with innovations set to make a significant impact. PragmatIC’s ConnectIC family of ultra-low cost, thin and robust flexible integrated circuits (FlexICs) are ideal for mass market applications.

In summary, reducing the cost of implementing RFID/NFC and flexible electronics technology in everyday products could play a pivotal role in addressing the challenge of increasing recycling. As well as delivering clear, localised information about the recyclability of the packaging, it can be used to incentivise consumers to recycle more. All of which will help us to make serious inroads into reaching Europe’s recycling targets.  

The author, Gillian Ewers, is VP of marketing at PragmatIC.

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