'Bin Brother' is about to bug Oxford's new wheelie bins with people potentially facing bills over how much waste they dump.

More than 500,000 electronic bugs have already been planted in wheelie bins in council districts across England, and when Oxford's new wheelie bin system goes live in November, the bins will also contain a bug, slightly bigger than a penny. Liberal Democrat leaders of the city council had not told residents they planned to use the bugs - which store information about the weight of their rubbish - but Jean Fooks, the executive member in charge of recycling, confirmed the plan yesterday.

She said the technology was necessary in case the Government decided to implement an Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) proposal to fine residents according to how much unrecyclable rubbish they leave out.

But Labour city councillor John Tanner urged the Liberal Democrats to drop the plan. He added: "This is another daft computer idea. It may be a Government proposal, but that doesn't mean we have to go along with it, and it could create opposition to the basic idea of getting people to recycle more rubbish, which we support.

"Instead of wasting money on this unproven technology, the Liberal Democrats should be investing more in providing a recycling scheme for flat-dwellers, which is not being properly introduced until 2007."

Mrs Fooks said the council had no intention of keeping the electronic bugs secret, and people would be fully briefed by officers at area committees in the coming months.

She added that Government proposals for an extra tax on residents who left large amounts of non-recyclable waste were at an early stage, but the bin bugs would be necessary if plans went ahead.

"We will not be spying on people and we are not talking about charging anyone at this stage," Mrs Fooks said.

"At present, the chips will provide useful information about which areas are recycling more."

According to the IPPR, Britain recycled or composted just 18 per cent of its municipal waste in 2003-04. IPPR director Nick Pearce said: "The Government should give local authorities powers to charge for collecting non-recyclable waste. Our European neighbours have shown that where charges are commonplace, recycling rates will rise."

The plan to introduce wheelie bins in Oxford and empty them on a fortnightly, instead of a weekly basis, has already proved controversial because residents fear they will face a different kind of bug during hot weather - maggots.

But Mrs Fooks insisted that the fortnightly scheme had worked in some parts of the country and should go ahead in Oxford.

The kerbside bins will be phased in from November in one part of the city, although the location has not yet been decided. Mrs Fooks reassured residents that Oxford's rubbish put out for recycling was not being shipped abroad to be dumped, after it was revealed that last year four million tonnes of recycling waste went overseas.

HOW IT WORKS THE electronic chips are hidden under the moulded front lip of wheelie bins used by householders for non-recyclable waste.

As the bin is raised by the mechanical hoister at the back of the truck, the chip passes across an antenna fitted to the lifting mechanism. That enables the antenna to scan a serial number assigned to each property in the street.

A computer inside the truck weighs the bin as it is raised, subtracts the weight of the bin, and records the weight of the contents on an electronic data card.

When the truck returns to the depot, all the information collected on the round is transmitted to a hand-held device and downloaded on to the council's central computer. Although the chip itself is only worth about £2, fitting the equipment to a bin lorry costs about £15,000.

A less hi-tech method has been running in New Zealand since the early 90s. Some councils sell their own rubbish bags or stickers to attach to binbags and will only take those away.