could you cope if there was a bin collection strike in your area?

[Goldyyup]

I have been following the bin strike in Birmingham and the huge fly tipping as a result of the lack of collections.

How would you manage if that happened in your area? I don't have the space to store all the rubbish.

It has made me realise what an important job they do.

They would more than likely put in a booking system to avoid this.

some of ours down here already do that.

We live in Warrington and had one last year something like October to December. We are fortunate enough that we could afford private bin collections. We went 3 weeks each time between collections but didn’t bother with our recycling bin, just bagged that up and stored it in the garage until the strikes stopped because it was clean and didn’t smell or encourage pests.

It’s why the bin people continued to work during Covid

I have a 321 service, I wouldn’t have a problem with rubbish for around 2/3 months but recycling would become an issue after 1 month and food waste after 3 weeks

£55 a year of my council tax is spent on rubbish/waste collect and it’s worth every penny

No we wouldn’t cope at all, we have fortnightly collections and our two bins are always full at every collection, despite having an extra large wheelie bin for our recycling. We also have to book a slot at our nearest tip, I would imagine these would be even harder to get if there was a strike, I would also wonder whether tip staff would join the action. If so this wouldn’t be an option. Fly tipping in my county is a huge concern, but the council seem to be under the impression that making it difficult for residents to dispose of their rubbish lawfully is going to help, absolute madness.

we have an extra bin already due to the amount of medical waste we have so it would be a nightmare for us.

I have always respected the job of bin men though, it’s not one I would want to do!

We had bin strikes in Coventry. It went on for months. I don't get why the Birmingham one is constantly on the news. Eventually our council set up mobile drop off points and employed a private contractor to do the bin collections.

We have a car and live in a leafy suburb where almost everyone has a car, gardens and drives so there is the room. Wood is stored in them both but we have two big compost bins so could use them again to make compost.

We would really struggle, we live in an area that doesn’t use wheelie bins. The tip is an 80 minute round trip and you have to book a slot. We can’t compost our food and don’t own a shed or anywhere to keep the rubbish. Many neighbours already leave rubbish out ahead of time for a couple of days which is a nightmare in the summer.

Hahaha getting tip slots now in lots of urban areas isnt easy even without bin strikes!!

Yes that's right you can't just turn up at the tip in lots of places. You have to book a time slot and friends in Birmingham have told me slots are like gold dust, near impossible to get one at the moment.

No, I couldn’t. I really feel for the residents in Birmingham who have no choice to live like that. It’s absolutely grotesque and to be honest everyone involved should be ashamed.

Appreciate that it’s not the same for everyone, but we don’t produce much rubbish as a family. We only buy what we like to eat so there’s not much food waste. A lot of recyclable waste can be compressed and/or rinsed out. The main thing that we have is polythene, which I’ve started taking to supermarkets (on foot). If we had a strike I’d stop buying met for that time and try to buy food with no packaging. Also ease off on the Amazon deliveries etc to reduce the cardboard. I have extreme guilt about throwing anything away, the only way I can avoid being a hoarder is to recur the inflow of stuff in the first place.

Medical waste would be an issue for us.

Honestly it's not as bad as you all think. We had a month with no collection, but that's only one less collection than usual for general waste. We bought a compist bin which has cut down on what we put in the bin. Then our bin has been collected last week and this week. There is no rubbish strewn over our street, it's fine.

Cardboard dh has done some tip runs but it has been hard to book a slot. Plastic/glass we have a wheelie bin full now. Not sure what to do with this as they haven't been collecting recycling.

This is our second bin strike in Birmingham, the last one I remember being worse. But we lived in a different area then which generally had problems with fly tipping anyway and lots of households that didn't have wheelie bins and would leave bin bags out several days before the collection was due anyway.

We had 8 months of bin strikes (on & off) last year, it wasn’t great but how much it impacted your household massively depended on whether you had a car really. Our tip is usually limited to 4 visits per month & it can be hard to get a booking but during the strikes it was unlimited visits and lots more slots were put on so basically if you had a car then you were okay- although it was vile having to put your black bin rubbish into your car!

If you didn’t have a car you were stuck though.

We would be ok for a bit with the tip and outbuildings but we don’t have that much waste as we no longer have small children.

We compost and could have a bonfire for paper and cardboard.

I think so. I have a car and work part time so I'd have a bit of flexibility about going to the tip.

Got a shed to store a few bags too. And we never have any meat in the bags either, one DC eats nuggets but there's never any leftover for the bin.

We’ve got a large garage, and we actually produce very little non recyclable waste. We compost fruit & veg stuff. Leftover meat goes on the dogs dinner (where appropriate).

Remsining food waste goes in caddy’s- we might have to repurpose a garden waste bin to contain the overflow. Then we could get stricter about washing non recyclable waste so there’s no remnants of food.

I doubt all the other houses on the street would manage - many are small two up two down terraced and don’t have garages so it’d be outside somewhere attracting vermin.

We had one - for months and months. We double bagged rubbish and Kept it outside then every couple of weeks took it to the tip ourselves. On our street we got together and did runs and took the rubbish if the older people or the ones without access to cars.
Did the same with recycling.
the city STANK though because the big communal bins in public areas or for flats etc weren’t emptied and people in flats etc or with no access to cars didn’t have the same options.

Rats would be my big worry. We live near a river so there are already plenty of rats in the area.

Our tip has a booking system, so I’d inn MM shine the only change would be the difficulty getting an appointment. No queues.

We compost vegetable waste, give the dog left overs and recycle most packaging, so have very little waste that would attract vermin. If necessary we’d burn it.

We had one prick in the street who wouldn’t take his rubbish out of ‘principle’ -wanted the waste people to see how they were affecting him or some such BS, and rats started appearing as it piled up outside his front door. He would kept his waste out the back or bag it properly so we took his one day and he was furious. The idiot.
’I pay my taxes they should empty my bins’ etc

There are only two of us and I would say we produce a moderate-to-average amount of rubbish, and we have space to store extra bin-bags if needed, so I think we would cope although obviously there would be the worry of bin bags being ripped open by wildlife and attracting rats.

I live in Birmingham where the bin men are on strike.

I do laugh when I see the pictures on the news because it is not as bad as all of that. They’ve really chosen the worst places to film.

We have only actually missed 2 collections. As the council have been employing agency staff to cover the shifts.

To make matters worse, one of the household recycling centres is undergoing refurbishment which has put more pressure on sites.

You make an appointment for ‘the tip’ so no queues. There have also been mobile collection points, but there were a bit chaotic if you tried to drive in.

Unfortunately there are certain areas in Birmingham that are disgustingly dirty and overflowing with litter even during normal times. People are using the strikes as an excuse to fly tip.

Like people have said on here there are ways of reducing waste. Unless you are disabled or elderly there have been ways of disposing of your rubbish without the dumping scenes you see on TV.

Having said that, the bin men do a very important, essential job. So maximum disruption is what they need to win.

Yes, now we no longer have DC in nappies, I don’t think we’d be too bad for a few weeks. We’d have an annoying pile of recycling building up in the garage though.

One collection was dropped at Christmas so went six weeks without both, and that was a nightmare. It's how long it takes to clear the backlog too, as extras don't get taken. We don't really have food waste so it wasn't particularly smelly though.

Our tip is only open for minimal hours, you have to book a slot and pay for any rubbish you take - so it would cost me a day's work as well. But aren't the tip people, bin man people? Would it even be open?

You don't realise how easy it is for society to just break down...