Are NFC tags sustainable or Eco-friendly
You can find sustainable or Eco Friendly tags, but 99% of the tags on the market are not.
Ma Balise can provide you with Eco-friendly, biodegradable & recyclable NFC tags.
How are NFC tags manufactured?
A NFC tag is made of 3 blocs
– The antenna
– The chip
– the overlay
The NFC tag antenna
The antenna is mainly made with copper, it can also be made with aluminium or graphene.
Etching is a method where raw material is a metal foil on top of a base material. The extra material is etched with chemicals and only the desired antenna pattern is left on top of the base material.
Exactly as are made electronics circuit print. Lots of copper is wasted, lot of chemical products, mainly acid, are used to etch the antenna track.
Another way of producing the antenna is by laser cutting aluminium. If this process is a little bit safer for the environment, it’s still metal material that can not be recycled due to it’s too small size. Some manufacturer or providers claim these laser cutted antennas are eco-friendly, but they’re NOT.
So how are made the Eco-friendly NFC tags antennas?
The Eco-friendly NFC tags provided by Ma Balise have a printed antenna made by highly conductive ink. As it’s ink printed on paper, it can be thrown away with used paper.
Watch the video hereunder to discover how circuit board are made
The Eco-friendly NFC tags provided by Ma Balise have a printed antenna made by highly conductive ink. As it’s ink printed on paper, it can be thrown away with used paper.
The NFC chip
The chip is the most technological part of a NFC tag, and it take less then 1% of the size of the NFC tag. It’s the only part that can’t be recycled on sustainable or eco-friendly NFC tags.
But how is it fixed to the antenna ?
The process is known also as chip attachment or chip bonding. First, a drop of conductive epoxy – anisotropic glue – is placed to the spot where the chip will be attached. Next, the chip is placed in the correct position. Then, the glue is cured with temperature and pressure. The curing hardens the glue and makes it conductive.
Watch on these 2 videos how the NFC chip is integrated within the tag.
NFC tag overlay
The overlay of the NFC tag is also a part to consider when looking for sustainable or eco-firendly NFC tags.
As an example, if your NFC tag is made of plastic like for keyrings or bank card type, they’re definitely not sustainable.
If you want an Eco-Friendly NFC tag you need to look for a paper or sticker type.
Are NFC tags recyclable?
Eco-friendly NFC tags provided by Ma Balise are recyclable.
For the other types of tags, they’re definitely NOT!
How can I recycle eco-friendly NFC tags
It’s very easy to recycle eco-friendly NFC tags as they contain less then 1% of non paper material. So you can simply throw it away with your paper or carton for recycling as you would have done with any other paper packaging. That’s the power of the sustainable NFC tags provided by Ma Balise !