Back in the mid-aughts, when radio frequency identification was hovering around the apex of the hype curve, the technology’s pundits often spoke of a near future in which we’d breeze through grocery store check-out lanes as RFID readers collect the stock-keeping unit (SKU) of every item in our carts. Alas, that never happened. It may never happen, in fact. But Seattle-based startup Stuffstr hopes that item-level RFID tagging will make its way into non-consumable products, and has launched a new smartphone-based platform that aims to help consumers leverage those tags to extend those products’ value and improve their lifecycle management.
John Atcheson, Stuffstr’s CEO and co-founder, told me that someday, users of the Stuffstr app—which will soon launch on the iOS platform—will be able to simply use their cell phones to scan their closets, run an inventory check on their belongings and then tick off any items they would like to resell or give away. Stuffstr would then arrange for those items to be picked up or resold. The brands that produced those goods may also be made aware of their destinations, based on RFID tracking.
First, let me note that Atcheson knows this scenario is not currently possible. For one thing, iPhones are incapable of reading RFID tags, and while many Android phones can do so, they can read only Near Field Communication (NFC) high-frequency (HF) tags, not the ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) tags predominantly used for tracking consumer items. But he is hopeful that this will change—either because smartphone manufacturers will build UHF readers into their phones, or because other companies will begin selling adapters capable of converting a smartphone into an RFID reader, such as Microelectronics Technology Inc.’s Mini Me (RU-827), which plugs into an Android phone’s micro-USB port and retails for $199 on Amazon—about $150 more than consumers would likely pay for it. (Zebra Technologies, ATID and Trimble do sell RFID readers that also function as smartphones, but they are not designed for consumers and are very expensive.)
At the other end of the equation, of course, is the absence of RFID tags embedded in the products consumers buy. I queried my colleagues over at RFID Journal about which products currently carry RFID tags, and learned that European clothing brand Gerry Weber integrates item-level tags into its product-care labels… and, as far as clothing goes, that’s about it. Vivienne Westwood, a U.K. high-end designer, is working with a company called TexTrace to integrate RFID tags into clothing as well, in order to fight counterfeiting. In addition, Italian leather goods manufacturer Braccialini has embedded UHF tags in its products, primarily to determine whether unauthorized retailers are selling its goods, and to investigate the history of such diversions.
There are plenty of reasons, ranging from costs to privacy issues, that integrated item-level tagging (meaning a tag is embedded into a product rather than attached to its hangtag or packaging) has not yet taken off. But there are also plenty of reasons why all sorts of stakeholders in the consumer supply chain—ranging from textile mills to electronics companies to brands to retailers (as well as resellers, like eBay or Goodwill Industries), to consumers to recyclers to waste-haulers—should care that being able to track products from the cradle to the grave (or, preferably, from the cradle back to the cradle) is so difficult. As Lauren Roman detailed in this Expert View article, RFID, as well as the use of Internet of Things technology to allow consumers to engage with the supply chain via smartphone apps that connect to cloud-based tracking platforms, can play a vital role in enabling the circular economy. In such an economy, the reuse of resources and full lifecycle management are major design tenets of the supply chain, not feel-good exercises for a company’s sustainability department.
Stuffstr wants to support a circular economy, but it’s not going to wait until item-level tagging becomes the norm before it starts doing so. At launch, consumers will be able to download the Stuffstr app and, at the same time, give Stuffstr permission to access their purchase histories from online retailers. (Since Stuffstr is still working on those partnerships, I won’t name them here.) Later, when a consumer decides she no longer wants a given product, she can call it up on the app and Stuffstr will recommend local organizations likely to want it. (Enabling consumers to resell items directly is a feature that the app may offer down the road, but Atcheson says that Stuffstr’s research on Millennials—its initial target market—shows that they’re more interested in donating items than trying to resell them.)
If an item appears in any of the purchasing histories to which Stuffstr has been given access, the company will quickly and easily access the product details, making it easier for Stuffstr, as well as the consumer and the third party to whom the item will be given, to process the donation. But linking to purchasing history databases is also a key part of Stuffstr’s business model. That’s because the company plans to store data about items that consumers give away (or, eventually perhaps, resell) and sell this information, as aggregated data, back to the retailers that sold them. “Knowing that, say, consumers tend to get rid of this bike after X years, for example, is valuable information,” Atcheson told me. In exchange for that information, Stuffstr will charge the retailer a fee.
I might give Stuffstr a whirl, because I love the concept. I’ll admit, however, that at first I found it odd that one of Stuffstr’s initial propositions is simply to help consumers give their stuff away. There’s a Salvation Army about a mile from my house and that’s where most of my donations go. If, for some reason, that seems like a chore (if it’s a big, heavy item, for instance), I usually post it on Craigslist as a free item. Someone usually claims it within a few days. But, Atcheson says, Stuffstr will offer to connect consumers with the best possible recipient for each item, ensuring that the consumer (if they care—and I care, and I think a lot of consumers care) that the items will be put to the best, highest reuse.
“We’ve talked to lots of organizations and identified 30,000 different drop-off locations [for donations] around the country,” Atcheson says. Stuffstr focuses on groups such as Cell Phones for Soldiers, or Dress for Success (which provides career consulting and business clothes for low-income women), or innovative bike reclamation programs. As it turns out, there are many organizations in need of specific types of donations for particular uses, and Stuffstr wants to make it easier for consumers to connect with those groups. That is one way to make the circular economy a reality, and it can be accomplished without much technology at all.
Still, I agree with Lauren Roman: The IoT and RFID industries need to grab the business opportunities that a circular economy provides.
Mary Catherine O’Connor is the editor of IoT Journal and a former staff reporter for RFID Journal. She also writes about technology, as it relates to business and the environment, for a range of consumer magazines and newspapers.