This article is complete horse$hit.
1) The “chipping” is just an RFID tag that allows the trash-truck/recycle-trucks’s computer to log a particular can to a particular issued-to address.
2) There is no way no how that any “smart-bin” can identify 10% recyclable material in a given bin. Even if each piece of recyclable trash had an RFID identifier in it, you still would need to know the weight of each empty bottle/can to calculate that.
Thus, the LIKELY method they use (deduced in spite of the idiotic article) is that the city is tracking the weight of your particular trash bin and your particular recycle bin, and penalizing you if you don’t have say 10lbs of recycled material for every 100lbs of trash-trash in the other bin.
THAT is possible.
But also stupid.
A) wedge a brick or path paver in your recycle bin to make sure it’s always above the 10% limit.
B) Be sure to run the hose on the bin after you put the newspaper in it. “A pint is a pound the world around!”
C) Put on some “Ramones” and ‘Beat your bin with a baseball bat.’ (Be sure to have multiple hits from ‘kids’ who happened to whack the RFID chip...)
I do no weld. I do not own welding equipment. I did, however get married a few years ago, and one of the presents we got and rarely use is a creme brulee kit that comes with a flamey-thing that cooks and browns the sugar on top of the brulee.
I have been advised to apply that to the RFID device, from the inside, so as to avoid any scorch marks.
THAT is possible. ....yep, makes the most sense, it's the way that I'd do it.
But also stupid. ....yep, totally foolish.
You don't actually think that everything you put in the recycling bin actually gets recycled, do you? Metal does, probably. Paper might, in good times when people don't mind paying extra for "recycled content".
However, unless they've come up with a super sorting technique for plastics, I'd be astonished if more than a fraction actually gets recycled.
This article, for some reason, didn’t explain how it works.
The chip will track whether you bring the can to the curb. If you do not bring your recycling can to the curb for a certain period of weeks, this triggers a manual inspection of your garbage. Those people found to have more than 10% recycleables in their garbage will be fined.