Council scraps “unworkable” microchip bin project
By admin on Jun 16, 2008 in Recycling, Featured, Environment, News, Home & Garden
A council which was one of the first in the UK to introduce microchipped wheelie bins ahead of a possible “pay as you throw” scheme has abandoned the project after saying it was unworkable. The idea behind the government-funded project was to encourage households to increase recycling and cut the amount of waste going to landfil sites.
South Norfolk Council was one of the first in the UK to fit the bins with such microchips, but has abandoned the £250,000 scheme after the council beleived the technology used to weigh the bins was unreliable.
Councillor David Bills said: “The data that was coming out was not foolproof and you must appreciate that if one is charging or reimbursing people based on data, that data has got to be correct 100% each day of the year.
“If it’s not, people are going to start querying it and it’s going to lead to all sorts of problems.”
The chips were supposed to show how much people were throwing away and recycling. The bins were then weighed onsite by the lorry’s lifting equipment and the information was then sent to computers in the council offices. The council would then be able to tell exactly how much waste was being collected and where it was coming from.
A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said: “We did not give South Norfolk Council funding to run a financial incentive pilot scheme, or dictate that they use any particular method of technology to support their refuse collection and recycling scheme.
“Ultimately it is for local authorities to make decisions about the best waste and recycling schemes for their area, based on local needs.”
