Monday, October 09, 2006

Chip'n'bin row hots up

Surfing the BBC TV East Midlands site, my attention is drawn to a headline about "a Grantham man" who claims that the electronic chips embedded in new SKDC wheelie bins are illegal.

When I run the clip, I am surprised to see that "Grantham man" is none other than John Ozimek, my neighbour here in Deeping St James, over 30 miles from Grantham!

But the BBC's poor knowledge of the geography of Lincolnshire doesn't take away from the story:

John claims the chips in South Kesteven's wheelie bins now being rolled out (sorry!!!) are illegal under the Data Protection Act.

He says that the weight of rubbish in your bin is a private matter, just like your earnings and that a local council would need specific Government legislation to collect and record this information.

Meanwhile SKDC are confident they are within the law.

You can see the full BBC clip at:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/nolavconsole/ukfs_news/hi?redirect=st.stm&news=1&bbram=1&bbwm=1&nbram=1&nbwm=1&nol_storyid=5414354

Sorry I couldn't make it work as a link...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your neighbour, John Ozimek, certainly has a point.

It is a legal grey area and would need to be tested in court.

We all want to recycle more, but the real purpose of the bugs in the bins is to bill individual householders.

It would be interesting to hear from someone how this can be done without dumping extra charges on young families.

Anonymous said...

In order to get people recycling more, we need carrots not sticks.

Mmmmm carrots. I love 'em.