Rfid-based individualization of extended producer responsibility and recycling for weee

Recycling of ICT and other electronic products is gaining in importance due to both ecological and economic reasons such as the shortage of resources contained in electronic devices. European legislation has handed the responsibility for recycling electronic products to the producers. However, the WEEE directive (waste electrical and electronic equipment) and its national transpositions have been criticized for failing to reach the original goal of promoting design for recycling. In this paper we analyze how detailed object-related information can support recycling processes. We propose a distributed RFID-based waste management information system for electronic devices which enables individualizing producer responsibility but also supports other goals of waste management by providing detailed object-related information. We first analyze deficiencies in current practice and then conduct a requirements analysis for the proposed system. Based on this we create a system design model, consisting of data and object model and system architecture.