I'm really filthy. Wanna watch? (Image by KVDP.)

England is a little wacky with the “Oceania” surveillance methods, but the country has outdone itself with its latest Big Brother act. An Associated Press article on Google details how the government secretly installed 2.6 million microchips in trash bins to monitor how much garbage residents are disposing of. The chips haven’t been yet used to tax citizens who are creating what’s deemed excessive waste, but that’s the eventual plan.

I’m all in favor of conservation, reusing and recycling, but this is just creepy and invasive. It’s also seems like the future. An excerpt:

“The trash microchips are now part of the British information grid, which already includes a heavy reliance on closed-circuit television surveillance and cameras to monitor the population, particularly on the crowded public transportation system.

‘This is yet another piece of surveillance that the councils are taking on in our daily life,’ said [Big Brother Watch campaign director Dylan Sharpe. ‘With this information they can tell if we are home or not, and the information is stored on their database, which is not that secure.’

He said the ‘pay as you throw’ policy councils are planning to implement would discriminate against large families that generate more waste and might encourage people to burn their refuse–or dump it illegally–rather than pay extra.”