Ryan Bridge: Why are we paying $80 a year for a bin no one uses?

Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

According to the group who are upset about the monopoly-duopoly that's happening in our grocery sector, you could save, at most per person, about $74 per year. That's if they were to have perfect competition in the sector, which obviously would be very hard to achieve.

Do you know what else costs you $80 a year?

A friend and I were chatting at the gym the other day and he showed me his rates bill, which he had kindly brought to the gym to encourage him to run faster.

There's an $80 targeted rate for the food compost bin. He said, what's that for? And I was like, it's the green bin that's on the street that no one uses. Then he was running faster than I've ever seen him run on the treadmill.

So apparently 60 to 65% of us don't use them. I know they have them in other parts of the country, in Auckland we've only got them just recently, so we're all getting a bit used to them. But $80 a year is what you have to pay.

And I got quite angry because if you're on a fixed income, $80 a year is a lot of money. If you're a pensioner and you cannot opt out of this service.

Who else can charge you for a service that you don't want or need?

What about a pensioner who does their own composting in the backyard? They can't opt out of it. They have to have this bin, and they have to pay $80 per year for the privilege.

It's like a barber giving a lady a beard trimmer and saying here, I'm going to charge you for that. I don't need it. Oh, well, you have to have it. Why? Just cause.

And you know what? They're all made of plastic, these bins, so how's that for the environment?

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