Row over £13,000 green bin microchips

ROTHERHAM Borough Council has admitted spending an extra £13,000 on buying green bins containing microchips six years ago—but never using the technology.

A £216,450 grant from the Department of Food and Rural Affairs, allocated to Rotherham as part of a joint award with Barnsley and Doncaster, was spent in 2004 on 13,000 bins.

The chipped bins cost the council £13,000 more than the same number of bins without chips would have set them back, but have still not used them and stress they have no plans to do so.

The authority shelled out after privacy campaigners hit out at councils that they said were gearing up for “pay as you throw” rubbish charges by installing microchips in wheelie bins.

The chips allow councils to find out if people are taking part in recycling schemes by using their green bins.

The Big Brother Watch group says its survey has found 68 UK authorities with the technology at their disposal, up from 42 last year, with chips in two million bins.

Some other councils have said that the chips may be used simply to offer incentives, not fines.

A borough council spokeswoman said that although some green bins issued by the authority contained microchips, they had never been used to collate information.

She added: “We have had these bins since 2004 as part of a bulk order but they have never been activated.

“They are found only on some of our green bins. They are not fitted to any of our black bins, in which we collect residual household waste.

“Neither do our refuse vehicles carry the necessary measuring equipment to measure the feedback from the chips.”

Conservative councillor Tony Mannion said he feared that the council would eventually turn on to using bin technology.

“When we in the Conservative opposition have questioned the council, they replied they had no plans to use the chips to gain information,” he said.

“It was obvious that the Government would not produce chipped bins at such a cost to itself unless it intended using them.

“In my view both the council and the Government are attempting to introduce this system by stealth.”

Campaigners are worried that councils could use the chips to pile charges onto those who throw away the most, often those with large families.

“If local authorities have no intention to monitor our waste then they should end the surreptitious installation of these bin microchips," said Big Brother Watch director Alex Deane.

The borough council spokeswoman added that instead of looking to introduce chips on black bins, they were trying to “divert waste to landfill by other means,” such as recycling.