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.

Block of 6 flats, communal bins. Bins are full most weeks, recycling bins are full every week. We all drive so I'm sure if it came to it we could get rid of it, or someone would call the Housing Association who owns the lease and try and get them to sort it out (I know it's not their job but we pay them a service charge which does include rubbish disposal obviously not bins but we'd try).

We could cope. But the dump/recycling centre is about a two minute drive from our home, and we frequently take things there as it is.

It would be a nightmare round here. Its all terraces so we use bags only and fly tipping is already a big problem.
Also I dont drive so couldnt go to a tip. TBH the day after bin day always looks like chaos here with rubbish strewn everywhere so I cant imagine what a strike would look like!

We live in the country and I would just burn our rubbish!

I just emptied our full kitchen bin bag into the wheelie bin. Despite being careful, a bit of bin juice still leaked on to the ground outside before I could yeet it into the big bin.

No way whatsoever that would have gone anywhere near the inside of either of our (old but well looked-after) cars.

Incidentally, I wonder if any desperate folk in Birmingham have been resorting to the (ahem) other 'bin' for their slimy/sloppy kitchen waste... the one that you can flush?

I heard of people flushing food down the toilet.

We discussed this at work and think we would be ok for a month maybe more

I have an extra large recycling bin anyway and two green bins, so could store recycling in the green bin temporarily, like we have at Christmas when we had extra

Don't put much in the refuse bin it's usually only half full, so could go a while if we squish it down.

Food waste probably a bigger problem, we freeze it anyway so might be able to squish in freezer if we separate peelungs that can be composted and just freeze food scrapings as nd bones etc

I lived in Toronto when there was a garbage collection strike in 2009. It lasted like 5-6 weeks and it was awful. We had a DC in nappies at the time and a basement neighbour who didn’t seem to realise there was a garbage strike? It was awful. If I remember right it was well into the +20’s and it just smelled. The US (Obama was president then) literally issues a travel warning for their citizens not to travel to Toronto.

I live in Birmingham.

Honestly the biggest issues in our area have been:

1. bins left on pavements for weeks on end, whether they’re full or not, which makes walking to school frustrating.
2. no recycling collection since Christmas. We generate about one bag of waste per week, but our recycling is always full. We’ve been taking it to the tip but I’m conscious of taking too many slots as others with more refuse may need to go.
3. fly tipping. No Doris, now isn’t the time to clear out your back bedroom and leave a broken bed and some ancient pictures on the road “in case someone wants them”.

Most areas have gone 4 weeks max without a collection. The amount of rubbish some people have generated and dumped on the street in that time is disgusting. People should have some respect for their areas.

I’d have space to store it neatly for a good while in bin bags, however I change cat litter frequently and I imagine the smell and flies would be appalling.
if the tip was open I would bit the bullet and go there once a week…take my book and assume I’d have to queue.
if it was closed I’d have to drive my rubbish to my mum and dad’s house or sister’s house.
they live an hour away so it would be an unpleasant trip!

There was a strike here a couple of years ago, I think it lasted a for a month. We were fine, squashed everything down as much as we could and when the bins were full we went to the tip once. Now the kids are a bit older and out of nappies I think we could manage for a couple of months without a collection. If it was in the summer the only extra thing I would do is to store meat scraps in a tupperware box in the freezer to try and avoid getting maggots 🤢

I was thinking about whether this strike would prompt any discussion about the amount of waste we generate for landfill due to excess packaging and non repairable items. I haven’t seen or heard anything though.

I would probably manage ok. Food waste goes in the compost heap, washed recycling could be stored clean in the garden. I generate less than a carrier bag of landfill per week and would try to consciously reduce that.

It's nothing like that. The press are making a huge drama of it. Birmingham had a bin collection strike a few years back, it was longer than this, and people were generally very civilized. There wasn't much press coverage of it either.

I live in Birmingham, albeit under the control of another council, and our bin collectors went on strike in 2023 and again we managed very well.

The press are making out that we are all living in rancid conditions, when in fact the areas most affected are the ones that are not the cleanest to start with.

Exactly this.

It must be devastating for the people of Birmingham. Apparently the posh areas still have regular collections?!
God knows how I'd cope

Exactly. As you say, the previous strike was worse.

The areas worst affected by the mess are the areas that had problems already.

Many of the areas of Birmingham which sit on the border of Birmingham and somewhere else come under the control of various other councils who are not having bin collection strikes, so for them (and I am one of them) there has been no change.

Lichfield council is one such example, and their bin collectors have been out & about in some parts of Birmingham to lend a hand. Meanwhile, general waste collections are still taking place by Birmingham councils, albeit not as regularly in all areas.

Most of the (many) parts of the city I drive through are not looking any the worse for the bin strike, as it seems a huge number of people are taking responsibility by using the tips and trusting in the current processes.

Almost all areas are still having regular collections, just not as regular as the usual weekly collections. It has nothing to do with being "posh", although it must be noted that several of the more affluent parts of the city are under the control of other councils who are not having a strike.

Sadly, the press have honed in on a few parts of the city where rubbish has been a problem for a very, very long time. As many people have pointed out all over social media, the piling up of mattresses, furniture, and appliances has nothing to do with the bin collection strike. Nor has the fact that in some areas the residents have decided to take all their rubbish and pile it up in the street.

I frequently travel through a very much not "posh" area of the city, and it's just as clean as it always is...any rubbish hanging about there is also nothing to do with the strike.

Yes

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/apr/18/bin-strikes-illustrate-birmingham-wealth-gap

It’s really brought in to focus that we all generate far too much rubbish. Too much packaging, disposable stuff etc. We never used to create this much (I’m old) and it needs to stop.

No! Very much no. This has nothing to do with "posh" areas getting a better bin collection service at this time and everything to do with how people in all areas are managing the situation for themselves.

Edgbaston and Selly Oak are mentioned in that article, and I'm glad they are, because if ever I had to focus on areas of the city that are at both ends of the scale of affluence then these would be top of the list. Bin collectors are not being sent just to the "posh" postcodes in those districts...the piling of the rubbish is down to the people who've piled it. That article even refers to the student area of Selly Oak, which in parts is a dump at the very best of times, due to the way it is treated by those who live there.

But as before, if you don't live here then why would you believe anything but what you've seen in the news?

So is the news coverage of the waste in the streets - that you're supposed to assume is like that across the whole city of Birmingham - the equivalent of that famous photo from the 60s of the screaming girls at the Beatles concert, reported as the whole venue in an absolute frenzy; when the panned out photo of the whole room actually showed everybody else standing there normally, appreciating the music, with the half a dozen girls on the front row the only ones going crazy?!

Exactly this.

If you read the article, it says that posh areas are paying people to collect their rubbish, not that there are still collections (as in council collections).

It's a bit of a non-article really.

In other news, rich people pay for gardeners... and cleaners... and nannies...

I am not sure it is even true that people in posh areas are paying for bin collections. They have cars and can take stuff to the skip. Also unless you produce a lot of waste it probably takes two or three weeks to fill a wheelie bin and bins are being collected every now and then.

I agree that most people are probably taking it themselves in their cars, but at the risk of being pedantic (which I generally am!) the article says:

Norman Yousaf, the director of a waste disposal company, Monster Clearance, said he had experienced an influx of work, but that the upcoming bank holiday weekend would cause delays.
He said the differences in the buildup of rubbish across the city were more evident in more deprived areas, and that costs were a big factor.

“They call in, they say £30 for a bin, I’ve got three bins here for goodness sake, that’s 90 quid, plus I’ve got 10 bin bags, that’s another 30 quid, so that’s what, £120? I can’t afford that … but in the affluent areas, people are just accepting the quote, [they] just want it gone.”