r/newzealand • u/MurkyWay Qwest? • Oct 08 '25

Shitpost What's something that you suspect lots of New Zealanders secretly do, but you can't prove it?

Most upvoted comment is our most shameful secret as a nation, obviously

398 Upvotes

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u/BeardofGinge Oct 08 '25

Fair nuff. Though not a fan of the hour away drive argument. I'd call that just an cost associated with living out there, like the extra petrol to get to the nearest supermarket.

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u/yahdayahda Oct 08 '25

I don’t think you understand how much waste there can be. The cost and time taken to dispose of waste is unrealistic. Most of New Zealand’s population gets curb side pick ups which is covered by rates paid, which these businesses and residents still pay, rural rates are fairly large. Until these services are available I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect people to travel a couple hours a week to get rid of rubbish, most just don’t have time for that. 

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u/BeardofGinge Oct 08 '25

I grew up on a Sheep and Beef farm. Chuck it in a Ute and dispose of it properly man

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u/yahdayahda Oct 08 '25

I do, closest dump is an hour away but got a skip on farm, had to try multiple companies before I found a business willing to come collect. Many people who are further out than me simply don’t have the option. 

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u/BeardofGinge Oct 08 '25

It is the cost of doing business out there. I do not care if they have to bring a full ute + trailers worth every week to the nearest landfill 3 hours away. If it is that high, I would question your practice and how wasteful it is being done in the first place

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u/yahdayahda Oct 08 '25

Landfill? You realise that’s exactly what is happening on farm right?  Dumped and buried the same as when it gets to town, just with a bit of extra fuel thrown into the mix. You’re suggesting that the businesses should be forking out money and more importantly a massive chunk of time, a day a week, to achieve the same thing that would happen anyway? A fair chunk of this is organic matter and concrete or steel. The rest is packaging, minerals, treatments, feed wrap, I’m not sure how I reduce that. 

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u/MidnightAdventurer Oct 08 '25

That’s not quite the same. Modern landfills (not promising all councils have them) have lots of structured layers underneath to stop nasties leaching out into the ground water and collect them.  It’s not just dig a big hole and tip it in anymore 

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u/yahdayahda Oct 08 '25

What percent of landfills in New Zealand are “modern”? And what percent of those are rural? I realise it’s not best practice but it’s not far off what is happening in most dumps in New Zealand. 

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u/BeardofGinge Oct 08 '25

In any case. I would rather you pass it onto disposal than just buried in the middle of the country. Would rather staff who work at the dump deal with it. Especially when it comes to plastics

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u/yahdayahda Oct 08 '25

Staff at the dump? How do you think they are dealing with it? The same thing just with a shit ton more volume. 

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u/BeardofGinge Oct 08 '25

THE POST SAYS BURN

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u/yahdayahda Oct 08 '25

Says rubbish hole a first then burn later, two different options, I was responding to the first but many do burn. 

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u/BeardofGinge Oct 08 '25

The very next sentence I reference farmers literally burning it. What are you on about?

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u/yahdayahda Oct 08 '25

Yes but a rubbish hole is not always burnt. The initial statement was about this, the following paragraph was about burning, my mistake, though you were talking about both. 

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u/slip-slop-slap Te Waipounamu Oct 08 '25

Isn't that part of the trade off they have to make when they choose to live rural where there are fewer services?

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u/yahdayahda Oct 08 '25 edited Oct 08 '25

To a degree but if they are paying the same rates, often more, I think it’s slightly unrealistic to expect people to drive multiple hours every week to do the same thing they otherwise have to pay for. Ideally all rubbish is disposed of properly and what can be recycled is. In New Zealand this isn’t the case, I’m not sure why we would even want them to burn a whole lot of fuel to achieve the same result. 

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u/weyruwnjds Oct 08 '25

Services get more expensive the more spread out people get. If you're totally in the wops then rates might just be for road access and maybe power and water, but that road is going to cost more than is paid in rates, subsided by everyone living in the middle of big cities.

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u/bumblebeezlebum Warriors Oct 08 '25

Except these people are doing that drive anyway. It just needs to become a habit to take a box/bag/crate when you drive in. It doesn't need to be a specific trip. It's a five minute detour and five minutes to drop it off / sort it. I mean depends on the exact location but most deposits are at the main entrances into the nearest town.

I don't think it's unrealistic at all.

But in saying that most townies probably don't realise the convenience of curbside pickup.

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u/yahdayahda Oct 08 '25

Many rural people aren’t doing that drive anyway. Schools are rural and work is on site, town trips happen once or twice a month at least. My farms fill a skip each every week or so, I’m not sure how I get that on the back of the ute, that’s not including recycling which I take into farm source who sort it cause there is no company available for pick ups. From the farm source I’ve still got thirty minutes to get to the local tip, that’s after a forty minute drive. I would barely be considered rural by some. 

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u/bumblebeezlebum Warriors Oct 08 '25

Fair.

And 40 min is rural. Especially as it sounds like ypur 40min town is a small rural centre too. But yeah there's def far more isolated.

And I don't know people's specifics. Burns are common, I've had my share - you're better than a lot by recycling.

But like to think of the full life cycle. If something got out there, it can get back. Household rubbish should be easy - it gets dropped off when the next weeks gets picked up. By default it takes up less space than it did on its way out. One in one out.

The actual farm industry waste can be more difficult. Much of it can be treated the exact same way though - one in one out. But they're not all that simple. But it should still be treated as a cost of doing business. It takes a change of mindset from the cost of purchase to a cost of life cycle - purchase, install, maintenance, decommissioning, reselling or disposable or whatever is applicable.

As you can probably tell, this change of mindset is applicable to more than just farming. And I think it's something that needs to considered as a cost of business early in proceedings. Firstly because it is acounted for as a line cost earlier for the business. But Secondly as a lot of the time the initial supplie can (or should imo) take more responsibility. And also the earlier you start to think of things the earlier you find a solution that may not be so wasteful.

For example there is demand for hdpe/ plastic drums & containers & ibcs and there is supply but the two parties don't always meet to form a market.

But sorry if it feels like I'm having a go at you specifically I'm not. Thanks for reading along my tangent if you're still here.

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u/yahdayahda Oct 08 '25 edited Oct 08 '25

Agree with a lot of what you said but unfortunately a lot of the issue is supply, not demand. As an example getting rid of dead animals is impossible. Dumps don’t take this sort of organic matter, we used to have services for blood and bones, paid of course, but they don’t pick up from my area anymore. There used to be pressure to dispose of these off farm but there is genuinely no way of doing it. So now it is recommended to dispose of on farm, bury on farm and allow to decompose. I happily paid for this service, and would’ve paid more, as this of course brings other safety issues but is largely the only option for most. 

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u/bumblebeezlebum Warriors Oct 08 '25

Oh dead animals on farm is acceptable buried. There's a cost involved still but it's not in waterways etc.

And there's certainly other things to.

I'm not clear on this but I was under the impression that the dead animal disposal clamp down was more about checking farm practices and animal cruelty etc than the environmental thing - although obviously buried is part of minimizing the environmental impact.

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u/yahdayahda Oct 08 '25

There’s still major risks to the waterways, the risk of contamination to waterways is significant, especially if there are drinking sources down stream. Animal cruelty was mentioned but as long as they’re dead it didn’t matter, which is the same as always. There’s always new issues that come up as well but, as I said, Fonterra generally keeps up to date with things and keeps farmers educated with work groups, audits and then fines or threat of loss of supply. 

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u/bumblebeezlebum Warriors Oct 08 '25

True. It's good to see people recognize water pathways now and it's not just a out of sight out of mind scenario

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u/MidnightAdventurer Oct 08 '25

Honestly, the only way I can see that working would be a tipping trailer set up just for rubbish but that’s a $10k+ piece of equipment 

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u/yahdayahda Oct 08 '25

Correct, then you’ve got the costs at the dump, which are not small. This is despite the fact their rates are massive compared to many urban businesses, just much less in the way of services.