Finally a Good Idea for RFID

All across England, waste management organizations have found a novel use for RFID tags: Installing them in garbage cans (known over there by the cute name of "wheelie bins").

Here's why: Garbage trucks ("lorries" in the UK) can weigh the cans and scan the RFID tag at the same time. The idea: Match up the weight of trash you're throwing out each week with the owner of the can.

Naturally, privacy obsessives (which I normally count myself among) are up in arms! Weigh our trash cans? That's a privacy violation!

Frankly I just don't see it. In fact, I don't see anything but upside for this technology. It's exactly the kind of thing that RFID would be perfect for.

For starters, there's no privacy violation in knowing that your house generates 18 pounds of trash or 12 pounds of trash in a week. Unless the RFID tags are meticulously detailing the contents of the can, which would be impossible, the truck doesn't know if you're tossing out a bin full of rocks or a bin full of porno mags. Of course, the same privacy risk that has always existed is still there: Someone could *gasp* actually look in the can. With their eyes. But the fact that a much-maligned technology like RFID is involved gets people irrationally scared.

Second, knowing how much trash people produce is good, not bad. You make more trash, you should be charged more. You make less, you pay less. That's about the best idea I've ever heard to get people to consume less and recycle more. I'd love to see a statement that shows how trash weight varies over time. Enterprising municipalities could conceivably include rewards for decreasing trash output and show consumers how much more they need to reduce in order to get another price break on garbage service. In today's world of overfilled landfills and environmental catastrophes, every bit helps, and pushing some of the onus onto households can't hurt. And really, we already pay for electricity and water this way. Paying for trash service based on weight makes logical sense.

Let's get real, people. There are real privacy risks out there, some of which even involve RFID, but focusing on good ideas like this one dilutes the argument against the real threats. Keep it together, and remember: Recycle.