Tracient Technologies handheld RFID readers used for recycling bin distribution.

If you dont put your recycling bin out thats only your problem right? Wrong. Its the Councils problem as well because they pay for the bins collection whether it was emptied or not.

So Australian councils are starting to mandate their recycling contractors tag each bin with an RFID tag so that every bin can be recorded as it is emptied. That way the contractor can provide the Council with an audit trail and charge only for those bins that have been emptied. To enable this the bins serial number and address need to be accurately paired with its unique RFID tag at the time the bin is delivered.

Mastec is a leading Australian manufacturer of general refuse bins, recycle bins & 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 whereby 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 has the Datanet bin identification solution running on it. The information is then sent back to Mastecs central database via a Telstra NextG Data Connection where it is matched up with the bins serial number and address.

Travis Thomas, the Datanet Account Manager in charge of the Mastec project says Mastec asked us to develop a solution that utilises their 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. Tracients Padl-R HF readers have proved ideal.

Another challenge for Datanet was selecting a reader that could be used easily by the refuse contractors, workers not generally known for their technical ability or care of technical equipment. You will be hard pressed to find a less techno savvy type than the rubbish man and they are using the Padl-R HF readers no problem says Neil Clarke, Datanets CEO.

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

Neil Edmond, Tracients Sales and Marketing Manager already has several prospects in North America looking to use the Padl-R readers for the same purpose. 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.