Australian Recyclers Respond to RFID Requirements

In Australia, many local councils are starting to mandate that their recycling contractors tag each recycling bin with a radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag so that every bin can be recorded as it is emptied. In doing so, the recycling contractor is able to provide the councils with an audit trail and charge only for those bins that have been emptied. To enable this, the bins’ serial numbers and addresses need to be accurately paired with their unique RFID tag at the time the bin is delivered.

Mastec is an Australian manufacturer of general refuse bins, recycling bins and green waste bins. The company also has bin collection contracts with councils across Australia. Datanet, a South Australian-based solutions provider, has developed a bin identification solution for Mastec in which every bin is read by a Tracient Padl-R HF RFID reader as the bin is delivered to the residential address. The tag ID is sent via Bluetooth to a Motorola MC70 Handheld Terminal which is equipped with the Datanet bin identification software, according to a Tracient press release. The information is then sent back to Mastec’s central database via a Telstra NextG Data Connection where it is matched up with the bin’s serial number and address.

Travis Thomas, the Datanet account manager leading the Mastec project, says, “Mastec asked us to develop a solution that utilizes its existing handheld computers, Motorola MC70s. These devices have the barcode scan capability, Bluetooth and GPRS but not RFID so we needed a cheap, simple to use RFID reader that we could connect to the MC70s via Bluetooth. Tracient’s Padl-R HF readers have proved ideal."

Sixteen readers have been in use by the contractors for 6 months without any problem, says the company.

Neil Edmond, Tracient’s sales and marketing manager, already has several prospects in North America considering using the Padl-R readers for the same purpose, the company says. “Curbside recycling is a hot topic right now. We expect further interest in our readers for this purpose in New Zealand, Australia and the United States in particular,” he says.

More information on the Tracient RFID readers is available at www.tracient.com.