Birmingham City Council has declared a major incident as an estimated 17,000 tonnes of waste remains uncollected around the city due to an ongoing bin strike.
The declaration means the council will initially increase the availability of street cleansing and fly-tip removal, with an additional 35 vehicles and crews around the city.
It will also allow the council to explore what further support is available from neighbouring authorities and the government and work with partners to better manage health and fire risks that the build-up of rubbish is causing.
Members of the Unite union in Birmingham are holding an all-out strike in a long-running dispute, after the scrapping of waste collection and recycling officer roles, which has led to rubbish piling up in the streets and residents complaining about rats.
The council says daily blocking of its depots by pickets has meant workers cannot get their vehicles out to collect waste.
A focus of the major incident will be on making sure bin lorries can safely enter and exit the council’s waste depots.
“It’s regrettable that we have had to take this step, but we cannot tolerate a situation that is causing harm and distress to communities across Birmingham,” council leader John Cotton said.
“I respect the right to strike and protest, however actions on the picket line must be lawful and sadly the behaviour of some now means we are seeing a significant impact on residents and the city’s environment.
“Unless we declare a major incident and deploy the waste service’s contingency plan, then we would be unable to clear the backlog of waste on the streets or improve the frequency of collections.”
About 200 waste collection vehicles are usually deployed over eight-hour daily shifts, with their contingency plan during the strike allowing for 90, but the local authority says the blocking of depots by picket lines has delayed getting them out on to the streets.
Normally, the council’s waste teams would make more than half a million collections a week, with its strike contingency allowing for 360,000, but the “blockade” of depots means crews are managing “far below this”.
In a statement, the council said the daily rate of accumulation of uncollected waste in the city has increased from 483 tonnes per day in the week of 10 March, and 655 tonnes per day in the week of 17 March, to almost 900 tonnes per day in the week of 24 March.
Industrial action Mon – Fri
— Bham City Council (@BhamCityCouncil) March 31, 2025
➡️ continue to put your household waste bin (grey lid) out - we will collect as soon as possible - this might be a weekend
❌ Do not put your recycling bin out for collection
For more information and advice, click the link in the comments 👇 pic.twitter.com/zEn7rnVCDp
So far, talks between Unite and council officials have not been successful. Their last meeting was held on Thursday.
Majid Mahmood, cabinet member for environment and transport at the city council, said last week that the authority was willing to work around the clock to resolve the dispute.
Mr Cotton added: “I want to thank residents for their continued patience under difficult circumstances and the community groups who have been working hard within their communities to help with clear-up.
“I would reiterate that we have made a fair and reasonable offer to our workers which means none of them have to lose any money and I would urge Unite to reconsider their position.”
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