BURY'S blue bins have been bugged' by the council to see who is using them and how often.

The Bury Times can reveal that 14,000 blue wheelie bins, which take glass and plastic, have been fitted with an electronic spy' device the size of a two pence piece.

The chipped bins have been in place since the start of the year, and will "go live" in October once the electronic reading equipment is installed on collection trucks.

They will monitor which households are using the bins, and those which do not will be targeted in future campaigns to boost recycling.

Council chiefs "categorically" deny that they will use the information to charge residents for the amount of waste they put out.

Government ministers are rumoured to be considering a "pay as you throw" tax on those who fail to recycle enough household rubbish.

But a council spokesman said: "The main reason for chipping the blue bins is that we are unsure of residents' participation, and we need to be able to demonstrate and prove what participation levels are.

"In addition, this information will allow us to be more pro-active in addressing our recycling campaigns with a little bit more than just guess work." The cost of the operation is £1.75 per bin, or £49,000 once all the borough's 28,000 blue bins have been chipped.

The chips will also help retrieve bins which have been stolen.

Bosses say they will not microchip the regular grey bins, brown "garden" bins or black boxes.

They add that the chips will merely register a collection at an address, not weigh or examine a bin's contents.

Mr Mark Sanders, the council's chief executive, said: "We can categorically state that Bury Council has no intention whatsoever of charging residents for waste or recycling collections.

"It is our intention to continue to supply refuse collections wholly funded by council tax payments.

"We further understand that rumours suggest the Lyons review may propose a levy for excess domestic collection but we have no inside information on this and the proposals in relation to the bins have no connection whatsoever with those rumours."

He added: "The scaremongering regarding a Big Brother state where levies are imposed for the collection of recycled waste bears no reality to the situation in Bury where we actively encourage residents to participate in recycling schemes with financial and voucher rewards."

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