There was a time when an unknown bloke snooping through your rubbish bin could have expected a punch in the face for his troubles, and your neighbours would have had your back.

Not now, and certainly not in the rapidly gentrifying inner northeastern Perth suburb of Bassendean.

I’ve had screeds of links and messages, not to mention phone calls from two TV stations, asking me what I think about the decision by the town council there to rollout of a new digital monitoring scheme for what goes into its rate-payers’ bins.