Tuesday - July 07, 2009

COMING SOON TO A TRASH BIN NEAR YOU, PUTER CHIPS IN BINS TO SPY ON YOU. OOPS, THEY’RE HERE NOW!

No rush, no hurry folks. Remain in line and wait like good little people and Al Bore’s Brit minions will see to you all.  Step right up, no hurry. Get your spy chip now. Plenty on hand.  Don’t forget to have forms filled in reporting neighbors and friends who violate gween regs.

Dust carts fitted with mini computers to record recycling offences
Binmen have been given miniature computers so they can report households for breaking rubbish disposal rules.

By John Bingham
Published: 7:00AM BST 06 Jul 2009

Southampton City Council has ordered the devices for its fleet of refuse vehicles amid claims that it could be used to spy on residents.

The system enables details dustmen to report misdemeanours such as putting out two bins, leaving the lid ajar or “contaminating” recycling by putting out the wrong type of waste back to council officials instantly.

Wardens, also equipped with mobile computers, can then be summoned to the address to challenge the occupants about their recycling habits.

One local authority boasted that it was able to get a warden to the scene “in minutes”.

Between 15 and 20 councils, many of which have switched to fortnightly collections, already use the “Waste Collector Live” system produced by Bartec, a company based in Barnsley.

The company also markets the controversial computer chips for bins which record how much waste families are throwing out.

Resembling a satellite navigation device, the system guides trucks around their rounds and stores useful information such as which houses have elderly or disabled people requiring assistance.

But it is also fitted with a touch screen on which dustmen are asked to report details such as bin lids which are not properly closed allowing officials to compile data on repeat offenders.

Publicity material for the device, also details how offences such as households with “illegal” second bins can also be reported instantaneously to council call centres.

It is already in use in Daventry, Northants, Nottingham, Rushcliffe, Notts, Walsall, West Mids, and Watford, Herts, among others, according to Bartec.

Southampton City Council insisted that it would not herald a “Big Brother” approach by the council and insisted that it would simply speed up the service to residents.

Doretta Cocks, founder of the Campaign for Weekly Waste Collection, said: “I can think of no other reason to bring this in unless they intend to charge residents.

“If it’s not exactly Big Brother already then it has the potential to be.”

Bartec’s website claims that the system has helped turn the process of reporting households which put the wrong type of waste into their recycling boxes into a “positive” experience.

It praises Tamworth Borough Council for a system in which wardens are dispatched instantly to “offer advice and assistance” to offending families.

SOURCE

One local authority boasted that it was able to get a warden to the scene “in minutes”.
Hmm. Wonder if cops can do that too. ??? Hey, why not? If a garbage warden can get to the scene of the crime in minutes, maybe the cops eventually will too.

Posted by peiper     on 07/07/2009 at 04:54 AM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous • UK •  
• Comments (5) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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