Chip & bin: one of four pulls out.

The term "bin bug" was coined in August 2006 by the British media to refer to the use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chips by some local councils to monitor the amount of domestic waste created by each household.  If the pilot schemes were successful it is expected that most British cities will introduce the system in the next two years. Three local councils in England and five Ulster councils have been trialling the scheme.

The system works by having a unique RFID chip for each household's non-recycling wheelie bin (such households have two bins: one for general waste and one recycling bin). The chip is scanned by the dustbin lorry and, as it lifts the bin, records the weight of the contents. This is then stored in a central database that monitors the non-recycled waste output of each household.[1][4]

While some councils informed the householders of their intentions to monitor their waste output many others did not Worcester City Council, for example, detailed their plans through local newspaper Worcester News in August 2005.  But in Scotland Aberdeen City Council kept the scheme quiet until The Press & Journal ran the story when the council declared no intention to operate or bring the system online, but did not rule out future use.

Some councillors said that the purpose of the "bin bugs" was to settle disputes about the ownership of the bins, but others mentioned that the system is a trial and means that they are more prepared should the government introduce a household waste tax.

The tax would be in the form of a charge for households that exceed set limits of non-recycled waste.With recycling in the UK amongst the lowest percentage in Europe at 18%, a new tax scheme would have the intention of encouraging domestic recycling and meeting European landfill reduction targets.

Each RFID chip costs around £2, with each scanning system costing around £15,000. The Local Government Association (LGA) provided £5m to councils to fund 40 pilot schemes. These are supplied by two rival German companies: Sulo and Deister Electronic.  The motivation behind the RFID chips is to monitor the production of landfill waste, so councils can comply with the European Landfill Directive 1999/31/EC.

In a statement the South Norfolk council explained why it had now given up, despite sticking with the problematic system until it was switched off in September last year. "We had received a substantial grant, and believed we had a responsibility to stick with it. That cost staff hundreds of hours of time in contact with the software firm, the weighing system supplier and the bin supplier, through meetings, email and phone calls."

But the council said that in the end the system "wasn't robust enough to cope", adding "when your first priority is to serve people by emptying their bins, you override the system, forget about losing the data, and get on with the job".

Government has said the failure of the scheme in South Norfolk does not threaten the future of similar projects elsewhere in the country. A spokeswoman for the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said that it was South Norfolk's decision to adopt the microchip approach and that no decision would be made nationally on the effectiveness of such technology until next year.

She said: "Pilot schemes to create incentives for recycling will be undertaken by five local authorities next year, when current legislation is updated to make this possible. Councils wishing to participate will propose schemes and methods that they have devised, not us. We will evaluate the impact of those pilots before making a final decision on whether other local authorities can introduce similar schemes."

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Source:http://www.silicon.com