Britain has been called the “Surveillance Society”. There are thousands upon thousands of surveillance cameras monitoring public activity. Citizens are scrutinized and information is entered onto data bases. The extensiveness of this surveillance activity is illustrated by the garbage police. There are people who enforce trash regulations:

“Uniformed posses of “bin police” are set to replace traffic wardens as the most loathed busybodies on the streets.

So far they have slapped fixed penalties of up to £100 on more than 2,000 householders for environmental misdemeanours such as overfilling wheelie bins, leaving out too many bags or putting rubbish out at the wrong time.”

link: Thousands fined for ‘bin sins’

Some communities are using rfid (radio frequency identification) tags on garbage bins to monitor and track trash activity. It seems lamentable that government officials place such a high priority on trash. These officials must consider other social issues resolved to such an extent that focus and funds now can be directed at monitoring people’s trash behaviour.

Catherine Forsythe
Director of Operations
FlyingHamster: http://flyinghamster.com/

Tags: surveillance, monitoring, garbage, police, privacy, rfid, britain, data base, fines