Big Brother's rubbish move

Huge sums are being spent by 68 local authorities in Britain putting microchips in bins – 26 more councils than were undertaking this bizarre practice last year.

If we are to understand correctly, this use of technology is to weigh the amount of waste used by residents and keep track of their bins, but the full picture is far from clear.

The Tories have accused Labour of secret plans to roll out bin taxes across the country and rumours persist that "pay as you throw" waste charges could be quietly introduced after the election now that the infrastructure is in place.

What is perplexing, however, is that local councils spent more than 1m last year installing these devices into bins – even though the recession means that they are facing an unprecedented budget squeeze. Surely, this money could have been spent more wisely?

This only leads one to conclude that the public sector, yet again, is playing fast and loose with ratepayers' money, and is completely out of touch with the needs and interests of taxpayers, the very people whom they are supposed to serve.

The microchipping of bins is also fraught with difficulty. There is significant evidence to suggest that it could lead to an increase in fly tipping – or people dumping waste in their neighbour's receptacle.

It would also have taken more than microchips to sort out the mess in Leeds last year when waste services ground to a halt as bin staff went on strike, leaving mountains of rubbish piling high on street corners.

This month the Local Government Association admitted that at least

25,000 – and possibly more – town hall jobs are on the line in the spending squeeze. In such difficult times, the knowledge that councils are financing a covert operation to check how many crisp packets are discarded will hardly bring comfort to those households funding this unnecessary surveillance.