Well, here's one more 'better idea' that made its way across the pond from Europa - specifically, England - to our shores. RFID ... can't say we weren't warned about it ... this is what happens when we play 'ostrich' ... It'd be a shame if those fancy trash carts kept catching fire ... accidentally, of course ...

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http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/08/city_of_cleveland_to_use_high-.html

High-tech carts will tell on Cleveland residents who don't recycle ... and they face $100 fine

Published: Friday, August 20, 2010, 8:00 AM

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- It would be a stretch to say that Big Brother will hang out in Clevelanders' trash cans, but the city plans to sort through curbside trash to make sure residents are recycling -- and fine them $100 if they don't.

The move is part of a high-tech collection system the city will roll out next year with new trash and recycling carts embedded with radio frequency identification chips and bar codes.

The chips will allow city workers to monitor how often residents roll carts to the curb for collection. If a chip shows a recyclable cart hasn't been brought to the curb in weeks, a trash supervisor will sort through the trash for recyclables.

Trash carts containing more than 10 percent recyclable material could lead to a $100 fine, according to Waste Collection Commissioner Ronnie Owens. Recyclables include glass, metal cans, plastic bottles, paper and cardboard.

City Council on Wednesday approved spending $2.5 million on high-tech carts for 25,000 households across the city, expanding a pilot program that began in 2007 with 15,000 households.

The expansion will continue at 25,000 households a year until nearly all of the city's 150,000 residences are included. Existing carts might be retrofitted with the microchips.

"We're trying to automate our system to be a more efficient operation," Owens said. "This chip will assist us in doing our job better."

The chip-embedded carts are just starting to catch on elsewhere. The Washington, D.C. suburb of Alexandria, Va., earlier this year announced it would issue carts to check whether people are recycling.

Some cities in England have used the high-tech trash carts for several years to weigh how much garbage people throw out. People are charged extra for exceeding allotted limits.

Now big brother wants to dig through trash?

And we need him as a leader why?


TRASH???

RECYCLING???


Our government is so fuqued up...

Be a damned shame if lots of people suddenly started disposin' of their white phosphorus in containers that allowed it to come into contact with ... oxygen ... just sayin' ...

sounds like just the thing to spend money on... i guess it will give a few trash pickers a job too...

$2.5MM for 25,000 households ... do the math ...

It is sad that they have to resort to this to get people to recycle. Hopefully, the next generation will feel more passionately about protecting our environment than the current one.

I'll just dump my trash in the public streets if that BS ever takes place in my town.

because lots of people just happen to have white phosphorus? Your suggestion reeks of terrorism

yes, recycling. There's a finite set of resources ya know!

Finite ... ? No. Just lack of imagination as to how best to exploit them indefinitely.

I'm pretty sure he meant "finite quantity", not "available for use for a finite time". And we do have a finite quantity, and with imagination and intelligence we can exploit them for a very, very long time. One way to do that is to reclaim some of our materials from our trash, to use again.

As much as I love to see people recycle, and as much as I consider it a legitimate social concern, and within the domain of legislation and possibly appropriate for some people to force their will upon others - I am still completely opposed to this use of RFID.

I would never consent to allowing the government to track my usage of the recycling bin, and people like me should *not* have such a thing (the remote tracking, not the recycling) imposed upon us.

Personal liberty and privacy continues to erode, one little piece at a time. Each baby step doesn't seem like a big deal, but if we don't stop it in the end we'll live in the 1984 universe.

You're probably right. There are, tho', only a SMALL number of items that can be successfully (and successively) recycled. Plastic is NOT one of them. PET containers (the plastic water bottles or milk containers) can only be recycled about 8 times. Steel, iron, aluminum, and other metals can be recycled indefinitely. Ever try the wonder that is recycled toilet paper ... ? Sheryl Crow really needs to rethink that one. We can save the cost-per-ton of extracting metals from oxides by recycling. We don't gain anything but 'feel-good's from 'recycling' paper and plastic.