Thursday, October 23, 2008

Winston Smith, we know you don't recycle

The fancy new blue recycle bins that the county government has forced upon us come complete with a most Orwellian feature: a radio identification tag which allows the County to track how often the bin is used for recycling.

Maybe we can call the young Exec Mr. Has Bin or Kid Kan, since he’s the spirit behind the nearly $3 million program. You read that right. At a time of tight budgets and projected shortfalls, Howard is trying to green its little bit of America by going Big Blue. Part of that cost includes a nifty little radio-frequency identification tag that lets the county track which home has the bin and how often you recycle. Some petty gray-suited functionary is now going to assess my antisocial recycling opposition. It’s an intersection between Big Brother and garbage, not that there’s much difference between the two.

No word yet on when a similar device will be attached to Ulman's Escape hybrid so we know how often he drives it over the Crown Vic that he is chauffeured around in. Thanks to Columbia Talk for the pointer.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Anyone know a microwave big enough to hold a blue bin?

Anonymous said...

Well, I just assumed they were going to give me a sticker for recycling! How about some positive reinforcement? Or perhaps it's like microchipping your pet--if it gets lost and turned in, they can bring it back to you!

Anonymous said...

Good morning Free Market,

I look to you as Howard County's version of Thomas Paine, in your attempts to provide "Common Sense"

With that in mind, some one approached me in reference to a problem they wanted discussed, in reference to the H.C. Board of Ed. I mentioned your site as a way for them to get their experience with the Board out there, and hopefully start some discussion.

They may be in touch, by doing what I have just done, using your comment section to introduce their subject.

I hope you find it worthy of your comments.