Mark Pearson said he has not used his green waste bin, which collects organic material, since the start of the year.

Any grass piles from mowing go into the garden and food waste goes to chickens, so he does not need to utilise Bega Valley Shire Council's Fogo system that was brought in last October.

As a single father of two with a mortgage to pay, he hoped to save the $88 he pays as part of his rates for the green bin service by returning his bin and putting the money towards other bills.

"I don't use the service, so why should I have to pay for it?" he said.

"It's a waste of money, and no-one likes wasted money.

"It's like me, yearly, getting $88 and throwing it in the bin."

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But in a response to a letter Mr Pearson sent earlier this month, council said: "we cannot remove the charge of the green bin from your rates as it is a mandatory charge".

Council's waste services manager Chris Best said the green bin has been mandatory for over 10 years for almost all urban residential properties and was part of a three-pack of standard domestic waste services.

"Generally either a service is offered to everyone or no-one," he said.

"If bins were optional then even the red bin would be not used by some members of our community."

He said council recently changed the charging structure to be more transparent with costs, so a residential waste management charge plus the green, yellow and the red bins formed a required minimum service for all urban properties.

"The overall cost of the three-pack and the service charge didn't change from last financial year (except CPI) even with the introduction of Fogo," Mr Best said.

"The green service doesn't cost any extra compared to everyone just having a red bin, as long as everyone uses the bin and saves us from pouring this valuable organic resource into engineered landfill."

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He said red bin services prevented the home burning or stockpiling of waste in the community.

"There will always be some people who want to avoid the cost of a waste service and the price is then borne by their neighbours, our society and our environment," he said.

"The Local Government Act gives all councils in NSW the power to require that a service is mandatory so that the sharing of the cost of the service is guaranteed, not just borne by those who are 'doing the right thing'."

Mr Best said green bins stopped organic waste being landfilled, reduced methane creation to the atmosphere and produced a valuable compost resource.

"In the same way that yellow bins allow plastic, metal and paper products to be recycled therefore closing 'resource loops' and avoiding mining of new resources - so too can green waste," he said.