Just one more scheme to get your money!

[Bubba136]

Spy chips hidden in 2.5 MILLION dustbins: 60pc rise in electronic bugs as council snoopers plan pay-as-you-throw tax

By Steve Doughty

Last updated at 8:11 AM on 05th March 2010

The growing threat of a stealth tax on the rubbish we throw away was exposed by startling figures yesterday.

More than 2.5million homes now have wheelie bins fitted with microchips to weigh their contents.

This is an increase of nearly two-thirds in just a year. The bins, which can be electronically identified and weighed, are designed for 'pay-as-you-throw' rubbish tax schemes.

Stealth tax: 2,629,052 homes have now been given bins with chips

Under such schemes - which are likely to be hugely unpopular - families who put out more waste will pay higher taxes to their local council.

Disclosure of the rapid spread of chipped bins followed the announcement this week of the first council to bring in a bin tax. Bristol City is presenting its scheme as a reward for recyclers, with cash payments to homes that leave out less rubbish.

The spread of chipped bins marks the revival of a tax idea that the Government appeared to have abandoned last year.

Gordon Brown promised to ditch bin taxes in the spring of 2008, at a point when the unpopularity among voters of fortnightly collections, strict bin rules, and the threat of pay-as-you-throw was at its height.

In January last year, ministers acknowledged that not one council had applied to test pay-as-you-throw schemes.

But yesterday, research by the Big Brother Watch campaign group showed that the use of chipped bins has quietly spread over the past year.

In March 2009, a survey based on Freedom of Information inquiries showed there were 42 councils which used bins with microchips. But the latest check, also based on FOI requests, put the number of authorities with electronic bins at 68 - one in five of all those that collect household rubbish.

According to the responses from town halls, 2,629,052 homes have now been given bins with chips.

Alex Deane of Big Brother Watch, said: 'The number of local councils placing microchips in bins is increasing, despite the fact that only one of them has volunteered to trial the Government's pay-as-you-throw scheme.

Councils are waiting until the public aren't watching to begin surveillance on our waste habits, intruding into people's private lives and introducing punitive taxes on what we throw away. The British public doesn't want this technology, these fines, or this intrusion. 'If local authorities have no intention to monitor our waste then they should end the surreptitious installation of these bin microchips.'

The campaign group complained that the bins allow councils to examine household rubbish and sell the information to commercial concerns as well as to impose taxes.

It also warned that collection of data from chipped bins could show when households were on holiday, opening the way to abuse by criminals.

The Local Government Association said that microchips were only put in bins to improve services to the public, for example by helping the elderly.

A spokesman said: 'Microchips simply identify the house to which a bin belongs, they do not mean councils can analyse what people are throwing away or issue fines.

'Putting microchips in people's bins can allow councils to provide people with a better service that costs less.

'If an elderly resident needs help getting their bin collected and returned, a microchip quickly flags it up to the refuse collector, saving time and money.'

However, using a microchip to identify a bin means that technology on a dustcart can then weigh it and the information can be used to prepare a tax bill.

Tories said they believed there were even more than 2.6million homes equipped with microchipped bins, numbers of which have been notoriously hard to track in recent years.

Tory local government spokesman Caroline Spelman said: 'Labour Ministers are secretly planning to roll out bin taxes across the country after the election if Gordon Brown can cling to power.

'The Government have already forced through bin tax laws and have been funding the bin technology to collect the taxes.'

A spokesman for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: 'There are no Government plans to introduce microchips in bins.

'Any use of microchips is a local authority decision - some councils use them to monitor levels of waste. This is not about spying on people or fining them.'

However, in 2008 nearly 100 councils ran investigations into the contents of their residents' bins, in some cases to check on what rubbish they dump and in others to try to obtain information on their incomes and lifestyles.

[roniheels]

Bubba136 ... Excellent job researching this subject. Based on the information you have presented, I definitely see many more minuses than pluses from this activity. I know there is much attention toward waste disposal, recycling, and polution prevention, but it seems this activity is masking the fact that it is a hidden "money-making" scheme. And what happened to the battle cry, "...no new taxes!?"

[Dawn HH]

Bubba136:-) Excellent research on your part. Cudos! You and I both know that if they are successful in this effort, then it will spread rapidly to most countries of the world and the U.S. would probably lead the fight. Heck, if they could find a way to tax us on the air we breathe, they would. Cheers--- Dawn HH

[Dr. Shoe]

We'd be paying tax on it years ago if they knew of a way to meter it. If they tried to microchip our bins I'd be putting all my rubbish in a big bag and dumping it at the end of the road.

[yozz]

Maybe one of our legal eagles might know how this would hold up, when challenged in court. There is a lot of legislation about privacy. And not only national, but also European. Of course that is the first to go in the bin when they use the word 'security'. Y.

[Histiletto]

To get funds to run our governments is a necessary fact of life. However, to nit-pick every crevice and cranny of our lives is inhumane. Government intrusion into our privacy has become a monsterous burden upon the collectors and the taxed. Everytime another project needs funding, we are hit with more taxes often hidden as fees. We ought to clear up the complicated system of our tax obiligations and make it a straight across the board accounting. List all the programs that are in the system for funding. Evaluate each program as to its effectiveness in carrying out its objectives. If it is found that more than one program is targeted at the same objectives and/or demographics, correctly combine and organize them to continue to take care of the perceived need and eliminate the doubling of efforts. Of course, get rid of the unnecessary programs. Figure the cost to efficiently run each. The total cost of these programs is the bases for the amount of taxes to be levied. Now consider the fairest tax that all taxable units should contribute as an equiable percentage of their annual increase. In my understanding, taxes should be levied on business and family units. Tax the periodic profits before the salaries are determined for businesses and tax the annual income of family units (single or legal partnerships). These are the only taxes that government should be able to collect. Any others are obviously redipping into the same coffers, which is an underhanded way to get more taxes, even though it has become acceptable. If more taxes are needed to be raised, do it in the fair tax for every taxable unit, but don't nickle and dime (or should I say credit card) groups. If taxes can't be raised, then obviously, programs will have to be cut back, but not eliminated. Maybe social groups could step up and volunteer their help to fill the needs of some programs. Come to think of it, some programs should be carried out by local social groups and they should be subject to periodic auditing for their compliance to the program objectives. This brain-storming is a possible solution. I'm not saying that it has no flaws, for I am sure there are always better ways to do things. Should taxed units get credit for their tax obligation should they contribute funds, materials, and/or services for the public good that would have been a cost borne by the government? Should contributions to organizations of social works and religion be deducted from a taxed unit's profit or income or should it be deducted from their tax obligation?

[HappyinHeels]

Now you know why the number of expats from places the U.K. and the U.S. is at an all-time high--who needs all this complicated liberty-eroding crap?? People are finding new places to invest, vacation, and RETIRE all over Latin America, SE Asia, and southern Europe. E-chips on garbage cans...WOW! Too bad there isn't an e-chip on all the rubbish emanating from London and Washington!! HappyinHeels

[Dr. Shoe]

The thing is, we are getting all "up in arms' about paying more to dispose of your rubbish. The thing is though, it costs the council exactly the same to empty half a bin full as it does to empty a full bin. This is a tax. Like I said, I would just dump my rubbish at the end of the road if it were me after ensuring that there was nothing there to identify me.

[Bubba136]

Surely you "jest," high stiletto! What you are contemplating makes far too much sense for any politician to support. Quite frankly, I am astounded at the things that are happening in the UK these days. I truly cannot understand how citizens living there can allow such liberty eliminating laws, programs, etc., to continue. Are the people living in England so dependent upon social programs for their existence that they will put up with anything in order to retain their "government" handouts? Not to mention the sad state of affairs in other European countries....how much longer will the population put up with this sort of government?

[krazykev64]

We'd be paying tax on it years ago if they knew of a way to meter it.

If they tried to microchip our bins I'd be putting all my rubbish in a big bag and dumping it at the end of the road.

i will go one better and put a match to it. i can then dig the ashes into my veg plot which gives me cheap vegetables. as i only live 1/4 mile from the local waste dump i could always dump it there once a fortnight

[krazykev64]

they will be putting counters in shoes next so they can tax us by how far we walk in a year. they would most likely come out with some crap like it wears out the pathways

[Dr. Shoe]

i will go one better and put a match to it. i can then dig the ashes into my veg plot which gives me cheap vegetables. as i only live 1/4 mile from the local waste dump i could always dump it there once a fortnight

Yes but that wouldn't be a protest. In fact it would justify them eliminating refuse collection entirely.

[Dawn HH]

Hey Guys--- Government Agencies may be reading all that we post here. Please don't give them any ideas as they always manage to come up with a bunch of crap to foist upon us as it is. Something has GOT to be done about all politicians and the twistings of our laws to benefit only themselves in this and other countries. Here both the parties that we vote for don't have a dimes difference between them so as far as I can see, it is long past time to vote them all out and clean house thoroughly and straighten things out once and for all. After all, WE are the employers, and THEY work for US. Their positions were not ment by our forfathers to be a lifetime career, but they should have served their time and then gone back home to go back to work for the GOOD of the country, not for their own. Cheers--- Dawn HH

[tineetommiee]

I agree with you totally. tineetommie

[tightsnheels]

Reminds me of the idea that they were floating around a year or so ago, the thinking is to read our odometers when we get our vehicle license renewed and charge everyone a per mile road use tax. They say the logic is that with the more fuel efficient cars there just isn't enough fuel tax to pay for the roads.

T&H

[SArmeah]

This makes me think of carbon offsets. Someone is going to have to pry my offsets from my cold dead hand.

[5.5 Thrill]

Hey Guys---

Government Agencies may be reading all that we post here. Please don't give them any ideas as they always manage to come up with a bunch of crap to foist upon us as it is. Something has GOT to be done about all politicians and the twistings of our laws to benefit only themselves in this and other countries. Here both the parties that we vote for don't have a dimes difference between them so as far as I can see, it is long past time to vote them all out and clean house thoroughly and straighten things out once and for all. After all, WE are the employers, and THEY work for US. Their positions were not ment by our forfathers to be a lifetime career, but they should have served their time and then gone back home to go back to work for the GOOD of the country, not for their own.

Cheers---

Dawn HH

Yes, Term-Limits would be a good thing!!!

Thrill