Quote:

---

Doretta Cocks, founder of the Campaign for Weekly Waste Collection, said: "This is Orwellian. We're already under surveillance for what we put outside the home in bins and now we could be watched for what we're doing inside as well.

"Most of us are happy to reduce our energy consumption or reduce waste but these measures always seem to come at the expense of our privacy. If I want advice on energy efficiency I will ask for it."

The DECC document adds households could even have their power to some appliances turned off remotely to help the national grid if there is too much demand. It says: "In terms of potentially intrusive non-physical behaviour unrelated to data, smart metering potentially offers scope for remote intervention such as dynamic demand management, which is designed to assist management of the network and thus security of supply. This could involve direct supplier or distribution company interface with equipment, such as refrigerators, within a property, overriding the control of the householder."

It also says potential extra uses for smart meters would need to be checked to ensure compliance with the Data Protection Act.

The government has yet to decide who will pay for replacing Britain's 47 million meters, which could cost up to £8bn over the next 20 years.

More than two million households in Britain have microchips in their council bin. Sensors and weighing equipment fitted to the back of each rubbish lorry allow the council to collect data as each bin is raised. Information collected from outside each household is downloaded to a database that allows officials to monitor how much waste each household is producing for waste and for recycling. Officials then use the data to target errant streets and households in a bid to increase recycling rates from 43 per cent to 60 per cent.

www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/6292809/Smart-meters-c
ould-be-spy-in-the-home.html

---

Quote:

---

People will be asked to pick through their rubbish to set aside every piece that can be recycled, re-used, rotted or incinerated under government plans to move Britain towards a zero waste nation.

Houses that already have up to four bins and boxes may get even more — including slop buckets — as the government sets out to teach the public how to become recycling experts.

---