RFID Helps Reward Consumers For Recycling
Elisabeth Wenner, Director of Sustainability, Kraft Foods

Used with permission from RFID Journal, Inc.

Kraft Foods has signed up with a recycling program that uses RFID technology to track and reward consumers for recycling empty containers. Kraft is the "official food sponsor" of RecycleBank, which has been expanding its offering across the United States with technology to weigh recycling bins as they are lifted into the recycling truck, while also recording whose recyclables are being weighed. The consumer can then use that record to download a variety of coupons and other rewards, based on the amount of recycling they did.

RecycleBank says it tries to partner with companies that are considered corporate leaders in environmental efforts, with the "official sponsorship" status granted to one industry leader per category. Kraft Foods, which markets dozens of products under its Kraft brand, as well as such well-known products as Maxwell House coffee and Planters nuts, has made a multipronged effort in recent years to reduce the company's environmental impact and support "green" causes. One focus of that effort has been on packaging.

The RecycleBank program is currently in use by more than 35 municipalities throughout Pennsylvania, Delaware, Massachusetts, Vermont and New Jersey, with plans for nationwide expansion later this year. Thus far RecycleBank households have diverted almost 36M tons of recyclables from landfills.