Josh Sandiford News, in Birmingham
“It shouldn’t be here. If the fire service see this they will be around to sort me out.”
I’m standing next to pensioner Lorraine Boyce in the cramped hallway of her Birmingham home.
Six months of the city’s all-out bin strike and the space is still being used to store a mound of recycling the council is unable to collect.
The authority is making largely regular pick-ups of general waste. But as a dispute with the Unite union continues, residents remain stuck in the middle.
“In the shed I’ve got a lot of small jars,” explained Ms Boyce, who is in her 80s and from Kings Norton.
“In the hall I’ve got half a dozen bottles, cardboard, paper and a lot of plastic recycling.”
The pensioner told the she believed in recycling and, as a point of principle, would not put it in with general waste.
But as she lives alone without a car, she is unable to take it to the tip herself.
“[The bin strike] is bad for our reputation and our morale,” she said. “I think it’s depressing. People are feeling that they don’t matter.”
Ms Boyce is not the only one feeling the impact six months on.
In South Yardley, Carolyn Bauer has bought a litter picker online and goes out multiple times a week to clean up her front drive.
But the bin store servicing her cul-de-sac is full of general waste.
It is only seeing intermittent collections take place because it has large containers rather than wheelie bins – great news for rats and foxes.
“We were stood out the front chatting to someone and you could smell the bins,” the 52-year-old said.
“I just want it to be resolved. I don’t really blame anybody, you just hope that one way or another it will be sorted out.”
Across the city in Aston, Rob Brough, 56, said his general waste collections were also sporadic, with locals managing through regular tip runs.
He and his neighbour Naomi Clooney, 50, showed me videos of an enormous pile of rubbish at their apartment complex at the height of the strike in May.
At the time, seagulls would regularly tear open bin bags, leaving a trail of rubbish for other wildlife to feast on.
Ms Clooney, who has been taking her recycling to Wales when visiting family, said she believed the situation was unacceptable when residents had faced consecutive council tax rises.
“It [has] marred the perspective of the city,” she said. “I had family over from Ireland and it was really quite embarrassing.”
Naomi Clooney‘Broken promises’
But the union says it is a case of “brutal” council cuts, claiming up to 170 refuse workers face losing around £8,000 a year.
“Politicians’ treatment of these workers, including lies about no one losing pay and broken promises about being able to retrain in driving roles that are now nowhere to be seen, is amongst the worst Unite has even seen,” said national lead officer Onay Kasab.
The union has now vowed to extend the industrial action if a deal is not struck, possibly beyond next March.
It means the strike could rumble on for at least an entire year.
If that is the case, people in Birmingham now know exactly what to expect.
