Wheelie bin chips will not be activated
COUNCIL officials have insisted microchips embedded in Hull's wheelie bins will not be used to spy on what people throw away.
An investigation by campaign group Big Brother Watch found, unbeknownst to many residents, 68 councils had installed microchips in people's wheelie bins.
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Hull City Council put Radio Frequency Identification chips in 11,000 brown bins – which are for garden and kitchen food waste – when it launched a trial scheme in 2007, but said they were never activated.
Hull City Council was among them.
It implanted Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chips in 11,000 brown bins – which are for garden waste and kitchen food waste – when it launched a trial collection scheme in 2007.
The council claims the chips have never been activated and were fitted at no extra cost to the taxpayer, during the manufacturing stage.
Big Brother Watch, a subsidiary of The Taxpayer's Alliance, believe microchips will eventually be activated in a nationwide pay-as-you-throw scheme.
A spokesperson for Big Brother Watch said: "Councils are preparing the technology at significant cost, ready for when the government announces a nationwide roll-out of charging for what the British public throw away."
Doug Sharp, waste development team leader at Hull City Council, said: "When we initially did the brown bin trial a couple of years back, the chips were starting to become popular.
"We did not have any intention of using them but we put them in 11,000 bins in case we wanted to use them in the future.
"This is because fitting them retrospectively would have been very difficult.
"However, we have not fitted any since. We recently rolled out 200,000 or so bins with the new system and none of them had chips.
"Hull's perspective is that we will not be using them."
17 Comments
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by andy the great, Blunderside
Tuesday, March 23 2010, 11:28AM
“further erosion of our rights then - well done Nu Labour you've taken just about every shred of human dignity away from us.”
by natasha, hedon road
Monday, March 22 2010, 8:59PM
“well this story has amused me as my blue bin has not been emptied for 6weeks and is still on the roadside waiting to be emptied we have contacted the council and told them they have not been emptied and they dnt even come to empty the bins on the days due for collection council anser to that was if they are not coming to collect them then your obliged not to use them also my green caddy hasnt been emptied so im just throwing the bags of food waste into my black bin all this recycling is a joke consindering council cant be bothered to collect them !!!”
by noodle, dull
Monday, March 22 2010, 4:48PM
“just fix the flipping pot holes HCC... stop wasting money on dumb ideas.”
by Billy, Hull
Monday, March 22 2010, 4:32PM
“I call all my bins the same name as they are all overwieght stinkers lol”
by Ranter, Hull.
Monday, March 22 2010, 4:23PM
“Correct Terry. He sits in the garden near my birdhouse between Cilla and Barry where also a big sly toad lives whos called Larkin. The greedy birds name is Sue.”
by Terry, Hull
Monday, March 22 2010, 3:03PM
“Chips in the black bins would make sense but aren't we supposed to put as much as possible in the brown and blue bins ?
Calling your brown bin 'Phil' is a stroke of genius and I presume its in honour of the now sadly departed tanfastic ex-manager of the mighty Tigers ?”
by Ranter, Hull.
Monday, March 22 2010, 1:31PM
“I call my brown bin Phil, and prefer to overload my elderly neighbours bin first. I would feel reassured though if he was micro chipped. That way, if he went walkabout, or if that fat bloke down the street tried to swap his broken one again, then I could prove Phil was mine.”
by Trigger, Peckham
Monday, March 22 2010, 12:34PM
“Chips in the brown bin???? shouldn't these go in the caddy or is it the yellow bin or green bin, Blue bin maybe....Osama bin....theres so many bins...Dave”
by Seamus, Limerick
Monday, March 22 2010, 11:16AM
“We are really taking to heart
This city of culture and art
Outside my abode
Is a cuboidal toad
It¿s my wheelie bin - playing its part!”
by Mike, Ex Hull
Monday, March 22 2010, 10:35AM
“The Sooner people are charged on top of their Council tax, for general waste collections the better. EVERYTHING should be getting recycled. Why should a pensioner pay the same amount as a family of four for their waste collections? Why should the those who diligently recycle and compost as much as possible , pay the same as those who do not?
The simple way of doing this is to give rebates according to how much is recycled and size of general waste. Those found abusing the system by transfering waste into other peoples bins, Should be fined,lose their rebates for the year. And made to fill landfill dumps by hand.”