The concept of a recycling system aiming at the recovery of resources from manufactured articles is proposed. The system integrates electronic labels for product identification and internet for global data exchange. A prototype for the recycling of electric motors has been developed, which implements a condition-based recycling decision system to automatically select the environmentally and economically appropriate recycling strategy, thereby opening a potential market for second-hand motors and creating a profitable recycling process itself. The project has been designed to evaluate the feasibility of electronic identification applied on a large number of motors and to validate the system in real field conditions.