Alexandria VA Surveillance State Alert

New recycling bins with tracking chips coming to Alexandria By: Markham Heid Examiner Staff Writer May 6, 2010 (Andrew Harnik/Examiner)

Alexandria residents soon will have to pay for larger home recycling bins featuring built-in monitoring devices.

The City Council added a mandatory $9 charge to its residents' annual waste collection fee.

That cash -- roughly $180,000 collected from 19,000 residents-- will pay for new larger recycling carts equipped with computer microchips, which will allow the city to keep tabs on its bins and track resident participation in the city's recycling program.

"If you know who's participating in the programs, you can focus your education and outreach to those who are not participating," said Stacy Herring, Alexandria's recycling coordinator.

Rich Baier, Alexandria's environmental services program director, said the city will use direct mailing campaigns and public presentations to target neighborhoods -- not individuals -- that lag when it comes to recycling.

"We're just trying to get the biggest bang where we need it for the buck," Baier said. "We don't want to get into exactly what people are recycling."

The new carts will come in sizes ranging form 25 to 65 gallons, and will sport wheels and lids. While the $9 charge is mandatory, residents may keep their old 18-gallon bins if they so choose.

Councilman Frank Fannon, the lone City Council member to oppose the new recycling bins, said he was against increased government spending, not recycling.

A a glance » Cost to Alexandria residents: Roughly $180,000, or about $9 per bin

"I thought this was just another fee that we didn't have to pass on to the residents," he said.

Herring said the city conducted a survey among Old Town residents last May that found 60 percent wanted larger bins. She also said other jurisdictions had implemented bigger recycling bins and had seen recycling rates shoot up as a result.

"The larger the container, the more people recycle," Herring said, citing a study conducted by Eureka Recycling, a Minnesota nonprofit organization that promotes recycling.

Alexandria recently reported a 29 percent recycling rate to the state. Virginia requires most localities to recycle 25 percent of its waste, while the Environmental Protection Agency advocates a 35 percent target.

Baier said larger bins increase recycling rates because residents tend to throw their excess recyclables into regular trash cans once their recycling bins fill up.

He also said litter was a problem with the current bins, which don't have lids to prevent light materials from blowing out into area neighborhoods.

Venishka Hurdle, who coordinates recycling education programs in Arlington, said the county implemented larger, tracking-chip loaded recycling bins last year and saw the curbside recycling rate jump roughly 24 percent. The county's overall recycling rate is about 40 percent, she said.

"They've been a huge success," Hurdle said of the new bins. "Residents love them, and they recycle more materials as well."

Hurdle said Arlington County is collecting data from the bins' microchips, but had not yet used that data to improve recycling outreach and education programs.

Alexandria residents can expect to see their waste collection fees jump up in July, and likely will receive their new bins this summer.

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/New-recycling-bins-with-tracking-chips-coming-to-Alexandria-92880219.html#ixzz0nAfXNdEA

To All:

The story says it all, under the oh-so-innocent pretense of making sure people are "participating in the (recycling) programs, you can focus your education and outreach to those who are not participating," Alexandria city council is installing tracking microchips in every single recyclying bin in the city (on the people's dime of course). I think it would be important this is stopped now. It is bad enough we have thousands of "traffic cams", and you probably can't drive 50 miles without passing at least one, but this new step up in a system bent on monitoring your every move and word is an outrage. This is the kind of Orwellian notion that is taking over the UK and Europe, they (the citizens) have quickly tossed there hands up and surrended. Now will we? Did our ancestors really sail across an unchartered ocean for a better shot at freedom just to have it taken from us from a couple pencil pushers who sit comfortably in a city hall, uncaring about the people's welfare except to exploit them?

These type of laws lead to a type of society which is not in keeping with the American Way of Life, and are in fact a DIRECT threat to our national values and freedoms.

Seeing as how the US's governmental policy is mirroring what is going on in the UK, next will be facial recognition cameras and an ID card that needs to be scanned at checkpoints around the country. We are being tagged, tracked, and treated like cattle (and in case you are not aware, cattle have a way of ending up badly).

If you are from Alexandria, I have a very SOLID Plan of civil disobiedence for you, BURN THE BINS! If you get a bin with a microchip in it, burn it! Light it up, don't take it, stand up against these bums!

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/New-recycling-bins-with-tracking-chips-coming-to-Alexandria-92880219.html

Another police state security surveillance program brought to you by the UK!

2.6M Microchips Placed in U.K. Trash Bins to Measure Waste
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/03/05/m-microchips-placed-uk-trash-bins-measure-waste/

New speed cameras trap motorists from space
A new type of speed cameras which can use satellites to measure average speed over long distances are being tested in Britain.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/7608153/New-speed-cameras-trap-motorists-from-space.html

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