Another step closer....
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Another step closer....
PulpaTronics is this year’s winner of the Green Alley Award. They design a metal-free and chipless RFID tags
"Clothing tags, travel cards, hotel room key cards, parcel labels … a whole host of components in supply chains of everything from cars to clothes. What do they have in common? RFID tags.
Every RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tag contains a microchip and a tiny metal strip of an antenna. A cool 18bn of these are made – and disposed of – each year. And with demands for product traceability increasing, ironically in part because of concerns for the social and environmental health of the supply chain, that’s set to soar.
And guess where most of these tags end up? Yup, landfill – adding to the burgeoning volumes of e-waste polluting our soils, rivers and skies. It’s a sorry tale, but it’s one in which two young graduates of Imperial College London and Royal College of Art are putting a great big green twist. Under the name of PulpaTronics, Chloe So and Barna Soma Biro reckon they’ve hit on a beguilingly simple sounding solution: make the tags out of paper. No plastic, no chips, no metal strips. Just paper, pure and … simple … ? Well, not quite, as we shall see.
The apparent simplicity is achieved by some pretty cutting-edge technical innovation, aimed at stripping away both the metal antennae and the chips. If you can get rid of those, as Biro explains, you solve the e-waste problem at a stroke. But getting rid of things isn’t the typical approach to technical solutions, he adds. “I read a paper in Nature that set out how humans have a bias for solving problems through addition – by adding something new, rather than removing complexity, even if that’s the best approach.”
And adding stuff to a world already stuffed, as it were, can create more problems than it solves. “So that became one of the guiding principles of PulpaTronics”, he says: stripping things down “to the bare minimum, where they are still functional, but have as low an environmental impact as possible”.
...how did they achieve this magical simplification? The answer lies in lasers: these turn the paper into a conductive material, Biro explains, printing a pattern on the surface that can be ‘read’ by a scanner, rather like a QR code. It sounds like frontier technology, but it works, and PulpaTronics have patents pending to protect it.
The resulting tag comes in two forms: in one, there is still a microchip, so that it can be read by existing scanners of the sort common within retailers, for example. The more advanced version does away with the chip altogether. This will need a different kind of scanner, currently in development, which PulpaTronics envisages issuing licences for others to manufacture.
Crucially, the cost of both versions is significantly cheaper than existing RFID kit – making this a highly viable proposition. Then there are the carbon savings: up to 70% for the chipless version – so a no-brainer from a sustainability viewpoint too. All the same, industry interest was slow to start with but when PulpaTronics won a coveted Dezeen magazine award in late 2023, it snowballed, says So. Big brands such as UPS, DHL, Marks & Spencer and Decathlon came calling. “We were just bombarded.” Brands were fascinated by the innovation, she says, but even more by the price point, “because, like any business, they knew that green products can’t come with a premium”."
-via Positive.News, April 29, 2024
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Note: I know it's still in the very early stages, but this is such a relief to see in the context of the environmental and human rights catastrophes associated with lithium mining and mining for rare earth metals, and the way that EVs and other green infrastructure are massively increasing the demand for those materials.
I'll take a future with paper-based, more humane alternatives for sure! Fingers crossed this keeps developing and develops well (and quickly).
The Very Near Future...
Micah 7:5–6
“Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide... for the son dishonoureth the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother... a man's enemies are the men of his own house.”
Matthew 10:21–22
“And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.”
Revelation 13:16–18
16 “And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:”
17 “And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.”
18 “Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.”
Rfid and ocd be like: wow im so excited to drink this water that is poison and eat this food that is every component texture.
I have been lifting for years. I'm talking been arrested more times in different counties than I care to remember. I was always told Victorias secret had a no chase policy. Well I have managed to stay out of trouble with the cops for the last 5y but my financial situation recently changed and I have started back really lifting big hauls. I'm not gonna lie, I was withdrawing from 7 hydroxie which I got hooked on before I even realized what it was, and was broke. I have the magnets and tools needed to remove almost any tag and I've never had any trouble out of VS. I was just feeling like shit and said f*ck it and filled up 2 of their shopping bags with gift sets and grabbed a couple of totes on my way out and just did my first ever walk out. Problem was I just had a total knee replacement last month so I literally had to walk not run. This b*tch comes out behind me filming me on her cell phone and I walk behind the store and crossing another stores parking lot and I hear her say something about calling the cops bc she had me right there. The load was so heavy I could barely pack it anyway so I just turned around and told her I was gonna bring it back with a WTF are you looking at attitude and she told me to give her the stuff so I did and she couldn't hardly pack it all back. My point is was she allowed to do that. She was an employee bc she's who greeted me when I came in. I want her wannabe hero ass fired but I can't exactly say I was lifting and she chased me off property 😆
The Last HOPE: REAL ID Act and RFID - Privacy and Legal Implications (Complete)
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a practical and useful technology for locating items without the requisite close proximity as needed with older technology, such as bar codes. However, new technologies such as RFID "powder," internal and external pre-crime detectors, and insertion into children's clothing and other personal items have pros and cons associated with the practicality of its use. In addition, RFID use in access control, identification documents, and banking cards, while convenient and illegal to jam, may lack important security features to prevent unauthorized scanning and usage of the data contained. The REAL ID Act mandates using RFID in ID cards that most Americans should carry for domestic airline travel and must carry for international travel. This discussion will examine current RFID technology and security concerns as well as how the RFID technology implemented in REAL ID Act cards and passports may pose privacy and security risks.
Mandatory RFID chips to track all cattle in the USA