By Nick Heath, 17 June 2008 17:21
NEWS
The UK's first project to measure the amount of rubbish thrown away using microchipped bins has been dumped.
But the government has said the failure of the scheme in South Norfolk does not threaten the future of similar projects elsewhere in the country.
South Norfolk walked away from the scheme, started in Autumn 2002, citing "unreliable" and "inconsistent" data.
The system worked by using chips to weigh rubbish as it was lifted into one of the 12 lorries fitted with an onboard computer.
An antennae in the chip sent the information about the amount of rubbish to the lorry's computer.
Problems emerged in 2006 when the system, designed for 60 to 80 bin lifts per day, was handling thousands of such pickups every day.
Difficulties with the system meant binmen were repeatedly forced to override the system to get the bin emptied and finish the round.
In a statement the council explained why it had now given up, despite sticking with the problematic system until it was switched off in September last year.
It said: "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".
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."
Comments
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1. anonymous
An easy way of assisting in recycling would be if councils took away plastic and cardboard as well. They say they're all for recycling, but then don't do the simple things. Why spend thousands on chips when splitting at source pre collection would be able to help. We now separate out and have to take to centres ourselves and it's a pain, but it's amazing how much less rubbish is in the normal bin! We have a young family and our half size bin is now only half full!
I live in Wiltshire and would love it if they did something! Make it easy and more people will do it!
2. anonymous
Sounds like system was a "load of rubbish" and should have been "binned"!
3. misceng
Will they have a separate system for bin bags? As an elderly person living alone in a mid-terrace house the council supply me with bin bags instead of the wheelie bin which I could not be expected to lug round the terrace for collection at the front. As I recycle most waste, the weight of my bin bag is so much less than a wheelie bin that the system probably could not cope.
4. anonymous
Well the system is definitely "big brother" and was probably only designed so that the goverment could work out another way to tax us (I mean, why not simply ignore the fact we pay for collection of refuse with our council tax and make us pay again !). However, I would like to correct Silicon.com's article and state that the chips in the bins do not weigh the rubbish - they simply tell the refuse truck, which does the weighing when it picks up the bin, the identity of the bin using that oft discussed technology RFID.
Of course, its all unworkable anyway as neighbours will just dump rubbish in someone elses bin. That's why I put my chip in the microwave oven for 30 seconds. Don't see that bin ever giving up it's secrets.