High dump fees

Fly dumping of rubbish in the environment by thoughtless individuals is abhorrent. However, to find one of the major causes leading to this antisocial act, one needs to look no further than excessive council dump charges.

Recently on cleaning up a rental property, I took a small ute load of rubbish to the council transfer/recycling station. This included an old CRT television for recycling plus some worn-out car tyres. My ute was weighed upon entry and exit indicating a net rubbish load of 320kg. My receipt/ docket states that this 320kg was charged out at $180 per tonne or 18 cents per kg, giving a total of $57.60. However, on top of this I was charged $26 to recycle one TV plus $45 to dump six tyres at $7.50 each.

The grand total charge for this small ute load was $128.60. As the weight of the TV plus car tyres made up a large part of this 320kg ute load is this not double-charging by council?

In our have/have not society the lower paid and beneficiaries are under extreme financial stress — to them the cost of dumping legally has become prohibitive. Their financial stress has also been exacerbated by council’s massive above inflation rate increases over the last few years.

Even renters are not immune to these rate increases as they are passed on by landlords, something I have resisted doing to date.

Since the transfer station/rubbish dumping was partially sold off by council a few years ago creating a Public/Private Partnership, the dumping of our rubbish seemingly has been turned into a profitmaking enterprise.

Perhaps this explains the astronomical charge of $180 per tonne to dump rubbish. In comparison, Wellington charges $158 per tonne and $4 per car tyre. David F Little

Whangarei