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Microchips are being fitted in food bins to encourage people to recycle more waste in areas with lower usage.

As part of the scheme, residents whose data shows they are not using their bins properly will be visited by Denbighshire County Council officials.

About 800 properties in Corwen, Ruthin, Rhyl and Prestatyn are expected to take part in the trial in November.

Refuse workers will be issued with chip readers which will feed recycling data back to officials.

Councillor Brian Jones, cabinet lead member for waste, denied the scheme was snooping and said it was trying to help "protect the planet for future generations".

"I haven't come across anyone when I have sat with them for five minutes to talk about recycling food waste and other recycling, when they don't come on board," he said.

The aim is to increase the amount of food waste being recycled to enable the council to meet its statutory target of 64% this year.

Tara Dumas, waste and recycling manager, said the four areas have been "identified by our waste collection teams because fewer houses there are recycling food than in the surrounding areas".

The authority is carrying out manual data collection in other areas and comparisons will then be made to determine whether the microchip method is more efficient.

The microchips could then be rolled out to 4,000 properties in 2020.

Earlier this month, the council said households could face fines for not recycling.