| Chipped Bins Key To Pay-As-You-Dump - Green Taxation Ensues |
| Written by Gavin D.J. Harper | ||
| Thursday, 05 October 2006 | ||
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Here in the United Kingdom, a nice idea has slowly been introduced by stealth. Some very clever local councils have been dishing out "Wheelie Bins" to residents in their locale. Not just any old mere wheelie-bin. Oh no - these bins are smart. Fitted with RFID microchips, the lorries which come to collect the refuge are capable of weighing the bins to within 500 grams, and identifying the householder by the RFID code.
Although the legal infrastructure is not yet in place to charge householders as they throw refuse, the Local Government Association is poised to make proposals later this year.
By moving to measures of "green taxation", it is hoped that the populace will be encouraged to recycle and be responsible denizens. The Liberal Democrats are the only UK political party that is being proactive and vocal about green taxation - a risky strategy for winning the hearts and minds of voters, but potentially of immense benefit to the environment.
http://campaigns.libdems.org.uk/greentaxswitch
Similar schemes are up and running in Germany, where residents can pay up to 18p per kilo for unrecycled waste.
It seems that some punters are less-than happy with this stealth-technology.
One local district warns against removing the embedded microchips as
http://www.stamfordonline.co.uk/pp/pressrelease/PressDetail.asp?ID=5077
http://www.aldbourne.org.uk/awg/portal/main/news.asp?Item=1157007060024&Section=News&SubSect=10
It will be interesting to see how this one pans out in the long run - some say charging for waste disposal using innovative technology such as this is only going to lead to an increase in fly-tipping and illegal dumping. Personally, I think that this is an interesting move in the right direction towards making people realise that disposal has a cost - and that they can help minimise that cost - and hence damage to the environment.
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chipped bins
written by Damian , October 18, 2006 | ||
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I think the scheme is a total waste of money. 1 bin is fine and it would be allot cheaper to employ people that can’t get jobs or that think it ok to live off benefits.
This country is disgraceful.