A sea of sensors

摘要

Germans are known to separate their rubbish diligently. Some even have dedicated containers for different kinds of metal. But they may soon need yet another bin: for electronic labels, also known as radio-frequency identification (rfid) tags. If not kept and treated separately, these could be very difficult to recycle, Germany's Federal Environment Agency said last year. The number being thrown away each year could rise from about 86m now to 23 billion by 2020, according to the agency.