Editorial: What price for a load of old rubbish?

I get why people dump their rubbish down banks on the roadside, and couldn't care less. The practice disgusts me, but I get why people do it.

In the past two weeks I have taken three trailer loads of rubbish to the Whangarei ReSort refuse transfer station.

I towed a small trailer, an old-school 6 x 4 at best. And paid $41 to $44 each time.

No wonder people don't go to their local tip.

In some instances there is little incentive to recycle. The last trailer load I took was half full of cardboard. After three days of shifting boxes and furniture, I had run out of energy to separate the load on the trailer into recyclables and non-recyclables.

Especially when I was paying $41 regardless of the load size I had.

I shoved the lot in and left it at the bottom of the tip face for someone else to sort.

And felt bad about it, I have to say. Some people don't. Fair enough.

And those who really don't feel bad about that sort of thing are the conscience-less vandals who feel like it's fine to take their rubbish, and smear it down a Ngaiotonga bank.

Like many people, I like to feel I am somehow contributing to the planet in my own small way. I care enough to recycle plastic and glass via the "kerbside" method, which we pay for through our rates. And to pay to dump green waste. But paying $41 for a small trailer of refuse feels like I am being fined - not charged.

And when, as we report today, some Northland councils are each spending up to almost $100,000 (recouping half back in fines, mind) cleaning up illegally dumped rubbish, then you have to wonder.

Someone must have done the sums - money in versus money out - and concluded that the charges are set fairly, which means rubbish and recycling is a profitable business.

More is the pity then, that five months after it was first reported, an illegal dump site in the Far North district is still there. If the council can't clean it up five months down the track, where is the incentive for the illegal dumpers to do the right thing?