"BIN Brother" tactics using concealed bugs in wheelies to spy on what thousands of people are throwing away are not on the cards for York, a city chief has confirmed.

The high recycling rates among local residents mean City of York Council is within its landfill targets and does not intend to resort to controversial measures under way elsewhere.

Penny-sized electronic chips have been fitted into 500,000 wheelie bins, used for non-recyclable waste, in pilot areas including Cheshire and Surrey.

The device means officials can find out how much waste a household is throwing away - and return the bin to its owner.

The device's existence was revealed as the Institute for Public Policy Research urged the Government to start billing households according to how much waste they produce.

But the move has shocked residents and been condemned by one MP "as Soviet-style intrusion".

Andrew Waller, York's neighbourhood services chief, said York council had not been approached to trial the electronic device scheme.

"It is something councils are doing where they haven't had the dramatic increases in recycling as York.

"I can understand why people object. It does seem very much like Big Brother if people were not informed of the chips being put in their bins. I know there's concern about identity cards - now there are identity cards for bins. We are not doing it at the moment and there are no plans to do it."

One reason for trialling the chips is to show which house the bin belongs to.

But Coun Waller said: "Most people simply put their house numbers on the bin."

Last year the amount of domestic waste permitted to be landfilled in York was 69,000 tonnes, which fell to 65,000 this year.

That will drop to 44,000 tonnes by 2010. The council faces a £150 fine for every tonne of waste above that.

"Because we have increased our recycling rates so much we are within our permitted landfill quota," said Coun Waller, commending residents for their "enthusiastic take-up" of the service.

"We are on target to meet our 36 per cent recycling rate for this financial year. It means we won't have the millions of pounds of landfill penalties we would otherwise face.

"The recycling rate in York has increased with the new collection systems and that's had the effect we had planned. Our priority is to encourage and educate people into recycling.

"Our focus is to bring kerbside collection to people who don't have the service."

The council is also expected to announce plans for rolling out its cardboard collection scheme to another 40,000 homes this autumn.

Already, 20,000 homes have a cardboard collection including areas to the west of York and some of the villages surrounding the Hessay area.