Chips with everything

I hope that  you will all have received your new recycling bins with the blue lids.
There has been some concern about the electronic chip in each bin, and the following
information has been circulated by AVDC:

Statement by:

Councillor Sir Beville Stanier, Cabinet Member for Environment and Health

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags in recycling bins



Each large blue-lidded recycling bin that the council provides to residents contains a RFID (radio frequency identification) tag, fitted at the point of manufacture. These are not bugging or tracking devices, but simply an electronic reference number identifying each bin.

Incorporating the RFID tags is a measure designed to provide the council with flexibility to introduce new recycling reward initiatives in the future. For example, residents living in the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead are already trialling an incentive scheme, with RFID tags used to help monitor the amount of recycling they put out for collection. The keenest recycling households are rewarded with vouchers for high-street retailers, such as M&S.

If we decided to offer such a scheme and our recycling bins did not contain RFID tags, then fitting the tags retroactively would be logistically challenging and would also cost much more financially. Purchasing them fitted at the point of manufacture, therefore, is more cost effective in the long run.

All the RFID tags can do is provide a reference number for each bin. The purpose of this is to provide each of our bins with a unique identity, a bit like a bar code, sticker or painting a reference number onto each bin. If the tags were ever used (and currently they are not) the tag itself would not be able to monitor the type or weight of rubbish being thrown away. All it would do is allow a vehicle fitted with a receiver device to identify which bin is being emptied into the vehicle at that time.

There are many misleading reports that seem to lead people to believe that the tags have mystical powers when, in reality, they really are no different to the identification chips people put in their cat or dog, or if the council had simply painted an identification number onto the side of the bin.