Issue #164 | Oct. 7, 2008 | by Andy Kowl
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced last week that RFID may be an invaluable tool in solving critical environmental issues. One example Angie Leith, EPA senior policy analyst, pointed to is a successful pilot they are supporting, but not funding, reducing the impact of hazardous waste shipments from Texas to Mexico.
More telling was the transformation of the way in which the EPA views RFID. According to Ms. Leith, when the department first focused on RFID in 2005 it was to determine whether expanding use of RFID would cause a problem from the disposal of the smart tags used (see last week's
look back to '05).
The U.S. environmental watchdog has no interest in regulations. Instead, their senior analyst said they "are looking at the potential advantages." They see RFID as an answer to "end of life issues." The EPA has concluded since some raw materials needed for technology are in such short supply, tagging these materials for recycling could have a big payoff.
She shared a winning anecdote about a Yale researcher who held up a cell phone and announced, "Half the periodic chart is in this."
Saving energy, reducing carbon
An insightful world view of RFID's environmental value was put forward by Dr. Thorsten Stoake from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. He concluded RFID benefits can be so profound as to save significant energy and carbon emissions through sheer force of efficiency.
Think about that: RFID could be so efficient as to literally impact the earth.
Interesting perspectives like these were a constant theme at the "Transatlantic Symposium on the Societal Benefits of RFID" here in Washington, D.C. Sept. 22nd. The U.S. Dept. of Commerce and the European Union* organized an event that was nothing short of a rousing endorsement of an RFID future. Executives present from SAP, GE, Johnson & Johnson, Oracle, Hewlett Packard and other global businesses affirmed that conclusion.
Stoake, associate director of the Auto ID Labs in Zurich, stated perishable goods account for 50% of all goods sold by U.S. retailers – and he said 15% of these perishables are thrown away. They calculated the costs growing, shipping, refrigerating, storing and disposing of this waste. The research showed not only are the cost savings of reducing millions of tons of waste obvious, the environmental saving from unspent energy and the reduced carbon footprint were equally huge. While this reporter questions the 50% perishables statistic, the 15% waste sure sounds right.
This validated the observation here on RFID Street last year by Rollin Ford, Executive VP and CIO of Walmart. As we wrote, he pointed out that out-of-stocks account for billions of dollars in lost sales, with inventory inaccuracies accounting for 41% of the total. Results like those of Proctor & Gamble, who saw 20% sales increases in RFIDed Walmart stores, will be what drives RFID adoption; here, too, there are major environmental implications.
Mr. Ford gave the following insight. “24 million shopping trips are made every day to Walmart. If only 100,000 trips are avoided due to less out of stocks, the greenhouse emission reductions can be measured in tons.”
Real world environmental apps
Both of these projections make the eventual environmental impact of RFID, worldwide, sound quite real. There are signs of profitable applications already underway, driven by cost savings and efficiency.
Concept2Solutions is a solution provider in the Pittsburgh area. According to Joe Franz, they are finding great traction in RFID empowered recycling collections. What they have learned from the customer service and operational success of their first implementations has them developing this as a specialty.
At a glance, the RFID-based hazardous waste recycling solutions offered by Sonrai Systems impressed us as a no-brainer. This Carol Stream, Ill., IT supplier specializes in backroom waste, trash and recycling solutions. Tony Romano showed us how they solve hospital hazardous waste disposal problems and service government regulatory requirements with RFID tagging.
Greening technology waste
At VARTECH in Orlando two weeks ago, the annual conference Bluestar presents for their IT solution customers, CEO Steve Cuntz described the disposal of old or obsolete hardware as an opportunity. “These products are green on the front end and are recycled on the back end, which will result in some green in the pocket for BlueStar VARs,” he said.
For starters, BlueStar has introduced "Green to Green," which will help keep electronic waste out of landfills. Clearly the bonus here is not only is this the right thing to do, the Florence, Kentucky-based distributor is enabling their partners to use the management of "end of life waste" as a competitive sales advantage.
Mr. Cuntz had obviously researched this growing dilemma and was passionate about how large, and ignored, the issue of technology disposal is. He reported on a virtually forgotten law, known as Title 40, that he estimated most companies know nothing about and routinely violate. "These people are technically risking jail, without having a clue." He promised increasing attention to this. (As we prepare to launch a major build-out of
RFIDSB TradeMart, we intend to enlist in this effort.)
This all ties back to the EPA's hope for RFID. There could be some conflicts to resolve first, though. European privacy advocates who made the trip across the Atlantic to this meeting, and their domestic counterparts, questioned the potential loss of privacy by allowing tags to stay with tech hardware though it life.
In response EPA's Leith warned, "Don't go too quickly to removing tags from point of sale." She agreed widespread adoption of "the opt-out initiative" would kill the environmental benefits RFID would bring "end of life" disposal. We will follow the coming debates that pit the environment vs. privacy.
*Transatlantic Symposium sponsors were the European-American Business Council, EPCglobal and Transatlantic Business Dialogue.
