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.ology Verification Program
E
Environmental and Sustainable Technology Evaluations (ESTE):
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)
Tracking of Hazardous Wastes Across International Borders
Impact Statement
The unchecked and untracked shipment of harmful
chemicals and hazardous waste across borders poses a
threat to our environment, human health, and economic
security. The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
(RCRA), EPA's regulatory and statutory authority for
hazardous waste management, imposes cradle-to-grave
requirements on the management of hazardous wastes,
including their import and export. RCRA is
complemented by three multilateral agreements that
address hazardous waste shipment across borders, the
U.S. and Mexico Border 2012 Agreement, the Smart
Border Accord with Canada, and the North American
Free Trade Agreement.
The emergence of RFID technology has important
implications for tracking the movement of hazardous
wastes and other materials, including the international
transport of hazardous waste into the United States for
disposal. RFID is an automated data capture technology
that can be used to electronically identify, track, and
store information about tagged items. It consists of a
tag, reader, and database. The tag contains a chip and
antenna. The chip is encoded with a unique identifier,
which can be scanned by a radio frequency reader and
uploaded to a database, allowing for real-time tracking
of harmful chemical and hazardous wastes.
Since the physical characteristics of chemical wastes
and waste containers could potentially interfere with the radio frequency signal, it is important to verify
how well technologies perform during the shipment of harmful chemical and hazardous waste from one
site to another.
RFID Draft Protocol Development
In 2005, EPA's Environmental Technology Verification (ETV) Program started the ESTE project to
verify the performance of RFID systems during hazardous waste transport. This project was managed by
the EPA Office of Research and Development, with collaboration from the EPA Office of Air and
Radiation and EPA Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. A draft protocol for testing the
performance of RFID systems was developed based on input from EPA, stakeholders, vendors, and many
international and national collaborators. This phase of the project was completed in February 2008,
following the completion of the draft protocol.
RFID Testing and Verification
In March 2008, ETV's Advanced Monitoring Systems Center (AMS), which verifies the performance of
technologies that monitor air, water and soil, identified RFID systems as a priority technology category
for verification, and decided to use the existing ESTE draft protocol for final test plan development and
verification testing. AMS released an announcement inviting vendors to participate in verification testing
ETV Program
The ETV Program operates as a public-private
partnership mainly through cooperative
agreements between EPA and private nonprofit
testing and evaluation organizations. These
ETV verification organizations work with EPA
technology experts to create efficient and
quality-assured testing procedures that verify
the performance of innovative technologies.
ETV operates six centers which cover a broad
range of environmental technology categories.
Vendors and others in the private sector, as
well as federal, state and local government
agencies, cost-share with EPA to complete
priority ETV protocols and verifications. In
2005, a new element of ETV was initiated,
Environmental and Sustainable Technology
Evaluations (ESTE), in which the most
important technology categories for meeting
EPA needs are verified through contracts with
verification organizations. ETV developed the
draft RFID protocol under an ESTE project.
See http://www.epa.gov/etv/este.html for more
information on the ESTE project.
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in Spring 2008. Currently, two vendors of RFID technologies have agreed to participate in the verification
test, which AMS will perform in February 2009.
These technologies will be tested using an EPA approved
test/quality assurance plan that lays out testing conditions
and quality assurance requirements. Passive, semipassive,
and active tags will be verified and various RFID tracking
scenarios will be employed. RFID tag location, antenna
orientation, read distance (distance from which the tag can
be read), and communication speed will be examined.
Cost, speed, and ease of use will also be considered.
Results will be published in verification reports and
statements, which will be made publicly available on the
ETV web site along with the approved test/quality
assurance plan, and stakeholder meeting minutes.
References
EPA, May 2007. EPA 's Environmental Technology
Verification Program. EPA/600/F-07/005.
Battelle, August 2008. U.S. EPA 's Environmental
Technology Verification Program Advanced Monitoring
Systems Center.
For further information contact:
RFID Final Test Plan, Testing and
Verification
John McKernan
EPA Project Officer for the AMS Center
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Research and Development
26 W. Martin Luther King Drive
Cincinnati, OH 45268
Phone: (513) 569-7415 Fax: (513) 569-7158
Email: McKernan.John@epa.gov
RFID Draft Protocol Development
Katrina Varner
U. S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Research and Development
National Exposure Research Laboratory
P. O. Box 93478
Las Vegas, NV 89193-3478
Phone: (702) 798-2645 Fax: (702) 798-3147
Email: varner.katrina@epa.gov
ETV Advanced Monitoring Systems Center
The ETV Advanced Monitoring Systems
Center (AMS) verifies the performance of
technologies that detect contaminants and
natural species in air, water, and soil. AMS is
operated by Battelle, a non-profit technology
research and development organization, under
a cooperative agreement with EPA.
AMS develops test plans, conducts
independent tests of technologies, and prepares
verification reports and statements for the
technologies tested. Vendors of these
technologies can use the verification reports
and statements for marketing purposes.
Regulators, permitters, and users of the
verified technologies can refer to the
verification reports and statements to help
make permitting and purchasing decisions.
To date, AMS has completed verification tests
of over 125 technologies, including continuous
emission monitors for mercury, dioxin, and
ammonia; ambient monitors for fine
particulate, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide and
ozone; test kits for arsenic, cyanide, atrazine,
and other water contaminants; and multi-
parameter water probes. Nearly 20 additional
technologies are currently in the verification
testing process.
For further information, contact Amy Dindal at
Battelle—phone (561) 422-0113; fax (614)
458-6697; or Email dindala@battelle.org
www.epa.gov/etv
December 2008
EPA/600/S-09/001
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