North Lanarkshire council is to become the “first Scottish local authority” to use radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to weigh residents’ waste. The year-long pilot, to be rolled out from early September, will involve 5,000 households. RFID tags will be installed within household waste and recycling bins. The tags will capture the weight of each individual bin and will help to understand levels of recycling participation against residual waste disposal.

The programme is funded by ACR+ member Zero Waste Scotland, which has contributed around GBR 48,000. This enabled the council to purchase and install on-board weighing kits for two refuse collection vehicles, and to buy RFID chips for all the containers at the 5,000 households. The funds cover the costs of installing the chips, supplying the communications materials and employing a project manager to oversee the trial.

Source: www.letsrecycle.com