The 250,000 families with a spy in the bins

UK Daily Mail | March 17, 2007

By STEVE DOUGHTY

The first official trials of pay-as-you-throw rubbish technology have started, paving the way for wheelie bin taxes.

Nearly 250,000 households have had microchips fitted to their rubbish bins in a test of the equipment necessary for sending families bills according to how full their bins are.

The Government has paid for the chips to be installed in three areas of Northern Ireland, now regularly used as a testing ground for Labour's plans for the rest of the country.

Tories warned that the chips will be used for the first tests of a tax on bins. The chips are used to weigh bins so that householders can be charged by how much rubbish they throw out.

A number of councils in England have ordered wheelie bins fitted with chips and some have put them out for use. But no rubbish tax can go ahead in England without legislation to allow councils to collect the money.

Northern Ireland, however, has been used as a proving ground for ideas as it is ruled from London and plans can be put into practice by ministerial decree.

Ministers and local council chiefs have called for a pay-asyou-throw rubbish tax, which would mean bills of £10 a week or more for a family. Town halls say they would cut council taxes if a rubbish tax were brought in.

Northern Ireland minister David Cairns confirmed that £140,000 had been given to Newtownabbey, North Down and Craigavon councils to install microchips in their bins.

All three councils run the fortnightly rubbish collection and recycling systems that have proved highly controversial in England, attracting complaints about rat infestations, health threats and fly-tipping.

Craigavon and North Down councils would not admit yesterday that they were in readiness for a pay-as-you-throw tax.

A spokesman for Craigavon said the chips could weigh bins, but there was no plan to bring in a tax. North Down said the chips were to measure the frequency with which bins were put out.

But Tory local government spokesman Eric Pickles said: "Northern Ireland is being used by Labour as a pilot for sinister microchips to be installed in every bin in Britain.

"Such taxes will damage the local environment by causing a surge in fly-tipping and backyard burning in local neighbourhoods.

"Combined with cuts to the frequency of collections, I fear bin taxes are dangerous and will put public health at serious risk."

He added: "No one believes that Gordon Brown would cut council taxes if top-up charges were introduced. Indeed, such a tax will cost a fortune to implement and administer, with households inevitably being left with an even bigger tax bill as a result."

The English town halls' body, the Local Government Association, called for rubbish taxes earlier this year, saying that families should pay for the amount they throw out to encourage them to reduce levels of waste.

If the Treasury were to pay for chips across the country at the same rate of subsidy as the three Northern Ireland councils have received, the extra cost to the taxpayer would be £35million.

• Householders who lose their weekly rubbish collections must endure invasion by insects and vermin, a Government report warned yesterday.

They will suffer worse living conditions and "annoyance" together with smells that may make them feel sick, it said. But ministers said the drive to cut back on rubbish collections would go on in the name of combating climate change.

Environment Minister Ben Bradshaw said: "Recycling is a vital part of our battle against climate change - the equivalent of taking three and a half million cars off our roads."

The report from the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs found no evidence that fortnightly rubbish collections are a danger to health, but said they led to "significant" increases in insects and vermin, and worse smells, as well as more complaints from residents.

The report said people should wash their bins regularly; "reduce moisture in waste containers"; wrap food waste; keep bins out of the sun; and put newspaper in the bottom to soak up liquid.