Bin Bugs

The Future of Waste Management or a Spy in our Bins

  
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Pay as you Throw




Data recorded on the disposal trucks about the weight of bin contents (to within 500 grammes) and the unique RFID tag identifier can not, at this stage, be used to charge householders. However, the Local Government Association wants to give councils the right to bring in "pay as you throw" schemes.

This would mean waste producers being charged according to the amount of waste they produce. Additionally, compulsory recycling is being introduced (in some areas) where non compliance could mean prosecution.



Motivation

To avoid EU sanctions Local Authorities must meet recycling targets by 2010.

Two Bins

Plans to alternate weekly collections between recycling and waste are one way of meeting the cost of waste collection but they have not been welcomed by residents. In some areas waste is piling up and the feeling is that councils need to collect the domestic waste more frequently than once every two weeks.

But the harsh reality is that weekly collections of household waste will cost people more in the future. Doubling the number of collections could add approximately £100 a year to council tax bills.

Colour Coded Bins

In some areas of Ireland, where 'Pay as you Throw' schemes are more advanced than the UK, the bins are colour coded
Green Bins for ordinary waste
Blue Bins for dry recylable waste
Brown Bins for wet recyclable waste

But to make things more confusing in some areas the colour coding means different things and the time between the collections varies with the colour of the bin.

Rabbits Ears

When we were young we may have joked that All of the rabbits ears belong to the council, but it appears that we may have been wrong and the council don't want our rabbits ears after all.

Councils reported as having bins with the new chip tags include
  • Alnwick
  • Crewe and Nantwich
  • Devizes
  • Harrow
  • Hynburn
  • Peterborough
  • St Helens
  • South Norfolk
  • Woking


 Bin Bugs

quick links
DEFRA - Strategy & Legislation: Legislation/Directives - EU Landfill Directive
IPPR - Institute for Public Policy Research, an independent charity, the UK’s leading independent progressive think tank.
sokymat - RFID Supplier
Holdfast Rubber Highway - A new use for old tyres.

definitions
Tag:  A tag or RFID tag is a small chip that will send a signal to a receiver. There are two types of tag; active tags which have there own power and send identification signals at regular intervals and passive tags which would need to be energised with a radio signal to be interrogated. The tag is more like a car number plate than a barcode because it uniquely identifies a specific item.
RFID or Radio Frequency Identification:  This is the technique used to identify a specific item using a signal sent from a label attached to the item.
Pay as you Throw: This is the concept of paying for rubbish disposal by weight rather than by a fixed regular fee.
Landfill Directive: The Landfill Directive was generated by the European Council on 26 April 1999 it is designated number 1999/31/EC. The directive requires Landfill sites to be classified as soon as possible but classification must be completed by July 2009. Additionally, the directive sets targets for the reduction of biodegradable municipal waste disposed of in landfill sites.

 
 
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