Watched-as-you-throw: One in five wheelie bins microchipped as councils prepare for bin taxes

It shows that a fifth of the town halls that collect household rubbish have equipped their bins with chips or have found other ways of labelling them.

The spread of microchips means that the number of councils prepared to bring in the charges has doubled over recent months.

Microchips or labels that can be read on dustcarts are key component of bin tax schemes which rely on weighing or measuring the rubbish put out by a home in order to sent the right bill to the right family.

Paid collections: Bins will be tagged and families taxed

The increase in numbers of councils equipping their bins with chips suggests that Gordon Brown's repeated pledges to kill off bin taxes are unlikely to be fulfilled.

Local authorities are also planning tighter enforcement of bin rules and regulations.

One in four intend to bring in stricter 'bin police' regimes against families who leave their bin lids open, put their bins out too early, or leave extra rubbish alongside them.

The policing of rubbish bins by teams of council wardens has been a cause of growing public anger.

A bus driver in Cumbria was left with a criminal record because his family left their bin lid open a few inches because it was too full, and a war veteran of 95 in Norwich had his collections stopped because he put a ketchup bottle in the wrong bin.

Council chiefs in Plymouth drew up a 'binquisition' form demanding detailed personal and medical information from those said to be breaking bin rules.

The expanding preparations for bin taxes and tougher policing of bin 'crime' were revealed by a Daily Mail survey of local authorities. The Mail received detailed replies from 110 of the 355 local authorities in England that run collections.

The responses from town halls betray widespread uncertainty over fortnightly collections  -  in which perishable rubbish from homes is picked up by binmen only once every two weeks.

The Daily Mail's Great Bin Revolt campaign demonstrated the depth of public anger over cuts in the weekly collection system that councils had provided for more than 125 years.

The Mail's survey showed that 9 per cent of local authorities that collect rubbish intend to return from fortnightly collections to weekly pickups, at least of food.

But another 11 per cent plan to go the other way and introduce fortnightly collection schemes.

The extent of use of microchips in bins suggests a high proportion of town halls have spent money and time preparing for bin taxes.

Last year, 30 councils were estimated to have put chips in their bins. The Mail's figures suggest that the number with chips or other identification schemes now is more than double that.

Six of the local authorities which told the Mail they identify each bin do not use microchips, but other forms of labelling. These including marking bins with serial numbers, or, in one case, using the low-tech method of telling householders to write their names on their bin.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is pushing through legislation that will make pay-as-you-throw taxes legal by the end of this year.

Tories said the Mail's figures show that the march towards bin taxes is 'relentless'.

And Matthew Elliott, of the Taxpayers' Alliance, said: ' It' s disgraceful that on top of paying double the council tax we did ten years ago, we are going to be charged extra for a basic service that used to be part of the package.'

The Local Government Association, the umbrella body for town halls, said councils have to cut the amount of rubbish sent to landfill.