Birmingham residents keep recycling inside homes as bin strike passes six months

Six months into an all-out refuse workers strike in Birmingham, some residents are storing recycling inside their homes while others cope with overflowing shared bin stores and sporadic general waste collections.

Pensioner Lorraine Boyce, in her 80s and living alone in Kings Norton, showed BBC reporters a mound of glass, cardboard and plastic stacked in the cramped hallway of her house because the council has been unable to collect her recycling. "It shouldn't be here. If the fire service see this they will be around to sort me out," she said. Ms Boyce said she refused, on principle, to mix recycling with general waste and has no car to take materials to a tip.

Across Birmingham, residents described a patchwork of intermittent services. In South Yardley, Carolyn Bauer said she now cleans her front drive several times a week with a litter picker after her communal bin store filled with general waste. "We were stood out the front chatting to someone and you could smell the bins," the 52-year-old said. In Aston, neighbours Rob Brough and Naomi Clooney said general waste collections had been sporadic but that people had been managing with regular trips to recycling centres or tip runs. Ms Clooney said she had even taken recycling on visits to family in Wales.

At the height of the strike in May, residents reported large piles of waste at some apartment complexes and birds tearing open bin bags, spreading rubbish across streets and communal areas. Council-led refuse teams have continued largely to collect general waste in many areas, but recycling and some communal containerised collections have been disrupted.

Unite, the union representing refuse workers, blamed council cuts, saying up to 170 refuse staff could face reductions of 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 vowed to extend industrial action if no deal is reached, and has signalled the possibility of striking beyond next March.

Residents and local campaigners have voiced frustration about the disruption, saying it has damaged the city's appearance and dented morale. Ms Boyce said the situation was "depressing" and that people feel they do not matter. Ms Clooney said the backlog had "marred the perspective of the city" and was embarrassing when hosting visitors.

Beyond immediate inconvenience and blight, prolonged disruption to recycling collections can have environmental and public-health consequences. When recyclable materials are mixed with general waste or left exposed, they can become contaminated, reducing their suitability for recycling and increasing the volume of waste sent to landfill or for incineration. Uncollected refuse and overflowing communal stores can also attract vermin and wildlife, creating sanitation concerns for residents in affected neighbourhoods.

The strike reflects a broader dispute over staffing, pay and service changes. The union says proposed cuts and the loss of roles are central to the action; council representatives have not been quoted in the material released by residents to the BBC. As the dispute reaches the half-year mark, local people have adopted ad hoc responses including private tip runs, sharing space for general waste, and, in some cases, storing recycling in homes or sheds.

If the industrial action is extended, communities around Birmingham could face continued disruption into next year, the union has warned. For now, residents say they want a resolution that restores regular collections for both general waste and recycling and addresses the longer-term implications for public health and the city's waste-management infrastructure.