Evidently, the technology´s Orwellian aura has set some Brits´ knickers atwist. Parliament member Andrew Pelling derides the trend as "nothing more than a spy in the bin."

"I don´t think even the old Soviet Union made such an intrusion into people´s personal lives," Pelling says. "It is Big Brother gone mad. I think a more British way of doing things is to seek to persuade people rather than spy on them."

Hoosiers Shoot For Break-Even
The city of Indianapolis is set to launch a recycling education and awareness program today to boost participation in its curbside and drop-off recycling programs. The Indianapolis Star reports that the city´s recycling programs have been operating in the deep red and that the city nearly dropped recycling altogether last year.

E-waste Watchdog
CIO Magazine notes that Greenpeace has issued a report ranking 14 major computer and mobile phone makers on the use of harmful substances in their products and the quality of their recycling initiatives. Topping the list are Dell, Finland-based Nokia, and Hewlett-Packard. The cellar dwellers include Apple, Motorola and Lenovo. (Lenovo bought out IBM´s PC operations last year.)

Trash Dweebs Take Inventory
The Vail Daily ran an article yesterday about a sorting project recently undertaken at the Pitkin County [Colo.] Landfill. The goal of the highly unscientific study was to figure out which materials people are recycling and which ones they aren´t.

The Pitkin landfill is in Aspen, so I was hoping to read something sociologically telling about the quality of toss-offs from that tony area. No such luck.

On the other hand, there is this: The landfill´s outreach and compliance coordinator, Dylan Hoffman, confesses he has a habit of peeking into people´s garbage cans as he walks around town.

"I´m a trash dork," he says.

Pete Fehrenbach is assistant managing editor of Waste News. Past installments of this column are collected in the Inbox archive.