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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.
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. 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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written by gloria Allen, November 27, 2007
There has to be another way to make people accountable for their WASTE....
How about instead having people's garbage weighed?
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Ours don't have the chip fitted yet, but the holder is present.
I think the recycled waste should be sorted better by householders, as I worry that the mix of paper, plastic and tin, may not be sortable in bulk.
The only problems with the pay as you go system IMOP, are a probable increase in fly tipping and antisocial people dumping rubbish in other peoples bins. So the penalties for either should be draconian.
Incidentally, my German sister-in-law was shocked that we didn't sort our rubbish for recycling, when she first visited us, about twenty years ago!!
So we have some catching up to do in the UK.