Idea--Sorting Trash through RFID

In Reston we're supposed to sort trash three ways: newspapers, bottles and cans, and trash. But in Japan they sort into many more categories, as described in this NYTimes story: How Do Japanese Dump Trash? Let Us Count the Myriad Ways

"YOKOHAMA, Japan - When this city recently doubled the number of garbage categories to 10, it handed residents a 27-page booklet on how to sort their trash. Highlights included detailed instructions on 518 items."

What was interesting was the social pressure on nonconformers to sort. I suspect the Japanese language has no word for "busybody".

Recognizing that more recycling is a necessity, wanting not to impose government restrictions on citizens, and seeing that what we have here is a problem of communication, I suggest that as stores like Walmart implement RFID (the tags that broadcast a limited set of information over a very short distance, like those the Fairfax library is now using on books) the information should include data needed for recycling. (This assumes the RFID tag can be incorporated in the item so it's not removed when the buyer gets it home.) That way we only need to sort tagged items out into a separate bin. The trash people empty the collections from such bins onto a conveyor belt, the RFID reader reads the information and sorts the item accordingly.