Sums

Not $4 per tonne, its $56 per tonne - they have to pay $30 to put it in landfill, but can actually sell it for $26 if it is sorted.

If it costs $100/household to set up, then it will pay off once a household has produced a couple of tons of recycling - probably quite a few years. But I guess costs are in the vans, not the bin tags, so marginal cost per household should be much lower. And landfill costs will probably only go up, so it seems plausible that it is commercially viable.

Wrong Math

The cost savings is not $4 but $56 per ton. As it COSTS $30 to dispose of the trash but they get PAID $26 for the recycling. That gets you to 1.78 tons per bin as a break even which seems much more reasonable.

Spelling Lesson

"break even" "I have no idea", etc.

Next topic: Maths

A cost of $30 per tonne compared to a revenue of $26 per tonne is a difference of $56 per tonne, not $4.

Final subject: Logic

Householders are being monitored that they put the bin out once in a while. If the city wants to spend the time and money to empty three bottles out of a bin that might take a month to actually fill, that's their lookout.

pay / be paid

I read it as a difference of $56 per tonne as the council have to pay for landfill but can sell the recyclables.

yeah

I wasn't thinking when I looked at the numbers, you're all correct it's $56 a tonne, making it all look far more sensible.

@Peter H. Coffin

oh look a condescending bell end. Well done.

Not so...

I occasionally miss a week, especially when it's raining and there's not much to go out. What happens if you're away for a month? Or nine months, as I was when working away from home?

I'm seriously considering investing in one of those gadgets that zaps RFID tags, given the way they're appearing in everything. Passport, clothes, cars, etc.

Brynley Heaven

>I'm seriously considering investing in one of those gadgets that zaps RFID tags

Consider, then, the story of Brnyley Heaven. Around 7 years ago South Kesteven District Council issued tagged wheelybins, with the intention of charging by weight, under a scheme introduced without debate in Parliament by the Bliar. However their public pronouncements denied this.

Mr Heaven removed the tags and delivered them by post to the chair of said SKDC, who threatened him with penalites for damaging Council Property (yes, the wheelies remain their property) and said that without the tags they would not be collecting his rubbish. Fair enough,says Bryn. I'll take it to the tip meself. And did.

The story dragged on with Mr Heaven becoming a sort of low-level page filler for the tabloids, until in the rather lengthy run up to the last election Brown's lot dumped the pay-to-tip scheme. It's gone rather quiet since then, and Bryn has had some sort of limited service.

The whole story was one of pig-headed refusal to listen, as was the same council's insistence that people who lived in terraced labourer's cottages with no front garden should wheel said wheelies through their house every week instead of retaining the black bag system that their own policies said were available for such cottages. Of course, the bins completely blocked the pavement and most 'went feral' on the first or second time of using.

Such over-arching powers should never be given to officials of small local councils, who are Gauleiter to a man.

Absent residents

'I occasionally miss a week, especially when it's raining and there's not much to go out. What happens if you're away for a month? Or nine months, as I was when working away from home?'

"Any residents whose recycling bin isn't on the curb over a couple of weeks will get a visit from the rubbish inspector, and face a $100 fine if it turns out they've been discarding recyclable goods."

Presumably, if you're gone for a month (or nine), you aren't producing any waste at all, recyclable or not. When the inspector comes out, and they see no garbage cans out, they simply mark you down as "ok."

Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if this doesn't get rolled into the waste truck system - when a house is under question, the next waste pickup notes whether or not they put anything out. If not, you just get automatically ignored for a while. Repeat ad infinitum.

Not to say I support such a system, just that if you read the article, the problem you are worried about is clearly addressed.

'I'm seriously considering investing in one of those gadgets that zaps RFID tags, given the way they're appearing in everything. Passport, clothes, cars, etc.'

That would be a lot of "fun" in this case. Zapping your RFID tag would result in a "no-show" report regardless of your actual actions. You could argue it and ultimately make them replace your bin, and probably repeat this enough that they even eventually put your house on an exception list... but you'll be investing hundreds, if not thousands, of hours into it. Seems like a waste to me.

-d

not so, alastair

It's a way to ensure that the twits in City Government who voted this stupidity in get voted out next election.

This year is an election year.

Around here they're still _requesting_ that you use recyclable bins. I wasn't here at the time, but I understand that a few years back the County tried to _mandate_ that everyone use recyclable bins, and there was <ahem> considerable voter resistance </ahem> leading to the premature (in their view, anyway) end of the political careers of several of those responsible for the initiative.

Unfortunately several of those elected to replace the twits had their hands out, and so have landed in Club Fed for a few years. The replacements for the replacements may yet try again.

There aren't that many places in the United States more corrupt than Corruption County, Florida; Cleveland is one.

... sneaking out the body

Obvious - use the kitchen/garden waste recycling bin. It is food isn't it?

@Tigra 07

The point is not that "the weight is secret", but what happens when (as is almost inevitable) you start getting charged for rubbish disposal by weight and someone decides to dump that old monitor or stack of bricks in your bin rather that theirs.

And if you think that's nonsense, I'd point out that for the past couple of months, someone has been sticking a couple of bin-bags of their rubbish outside *my* property. I have no idea why, I have no idea who, but if I was paying by weight you can be damn sure I'd be objecting!

The point IS that it isn't secret Graham

Let's suppose they tell you every week how much your rubbish weighed, then all of a sudden it increases and your neighbour's rubbish gets lighter.

You could complain, they can check your rubbish bags for evidence (they already do this and use it to catch flytippers aswell)

And then your neighbour gets a big fine or goes to prison for fraud.

Justice right?

Hopefully bin taxes will get abolished anyway because they're stupid

Lockable bins

Wouldn't it be sensible to have a locking bar that goes over the wheely bin lid which unlocks when the bin is turned upside down for emptying?

Ours too I think

We have one bin for paper; another for glass, tins and plastic. I'm pretty sure they all go into the same massive bin.

Bad idea

They might dump it into the lake. It's polluted enough as it is.

Not an automatic fine

"and when the rfid reader or chip fail you get fined??"

No, actually - re-read the story.

When the reader or chip fails, you aren't automatically fined. In fact, nothing happens if it fails once. If it fails several times in a row, a professional dumpster diver comes and plays in your trash to make certain you're doing it right. If you're not, then you get fined (presumably, minor mistakes from otherwise earnest recyclers will be corrected with some condescending advice and a pamphlet).

As for reading the chips from a passing truck, they don't have to do so. If a bin is out, the truck will be dumping it. When it is being dumped, they will read it. And since most areas are going to the recycling bins with lids like garbage bins, the garbage (recycling?) men will dump empty recycling bins even if empty - the only way to tell is to grab the bin.

-d

Well I assume

that when the bloke comes to see if you're dumping your recycling in the general trash, he'll see you aren't producing *anything* and so not fine you.

Did you know if you READ the article, the answers are in there?

Don't get me started about Chicago

You obviously haven't seen the Chicago River on March 17h of any given year. Or on Election Night, after the trucks carrying ballot boxes go over the bridges. (It seems that the only parts of Cook County which reliably vote Republican are on the wrong side of the river, and strange accidents have been known to occur with ballot boxes. This is commonly referred to as 'getting out the river vote'. Apparently Cook County has increased diversity in the Electoral Office, and has hired Piscine Americans to help count the ballots.)