As an integral component of sustainable manufacturing, recycling and remanufacturing have been gaining popularity in line with Green initiatives. While the importance of item-level information their success has been stressed, the potential of RFID technology in recycling/remanufacturing has not received much attention in the research literature. We attempt to address this gap by considering RFID tags and their applications from a recycling/remanufacturing perspective and propose a knowledge-based framework to assist such process based on RFID-generated item-level information. Specifically, we consider quality improvement issues related to repair and refurbishment as well as end-of-life recycling issues from the perspective of item-level information generated through RFID tags.