Josh Sandiford
BBC News, West Midlands, reporting from Edgbaston

Mobile waste centres are deployed around the city on a daily basis.

Mollie Queen has bought some garden waste to one visiting Cannon Hill Park, in Edgbaston this morning.

She says although the general waste collections were almost back to normal, recycling remains an issue.

"It's upsetting because I have very many newspapers, and it's virtually impossible to get rid of them," she said.

The 79-year-old had recently had a hip replacement, "so it's much harder for older people," she added.

"I have sympathy for people who need to earn a living, but it has been very upsetting."

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Josh Sandiford
BBC News, West Midlands, reporting from Yardley

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."

Professor Kathy Daniels, an employment law specialist from Aston University, said it was sad to hear how striking bin workers felt "they've been put into a corner".

"One of the problems here is if there's no negotiations happening, so how is the thing going to get resolved?" she said.

"I would have thought in this situation we need to go back to facts," she added.

"If you read what is said by the council, and by the union, it's two very different sets of facts," she added.

The union claim about 170 affected workers face losing up to £8,000 a year because of the decision, but the council said the number of staff that could lose the maximum amount of just over £6,000 was 17 people.

"So what's the truth?" added Prof Daniels.

"Because the way you resolve a situation that affects 17 people is very different to the way you resolve a situation that affects as many as 150 or 170.

"So I would have thought that the starting point would be to go back to the facts, and surely we can sit around a table and look at the facts and agree that, because that's not a matter of opinion."

Adam Pinder-Smith
Reporter, BBC Radio WM

Earlier this week, Birmingham City Council said it was disappointed that the dispute had not been resolved, and said this was because Unite had rejected all its offers.

"We are continuing to make regular waste collections as we prepare to implement the new and improved service," it said in a statement to the BBC.

“This is a service that has not been good enough for too long so it needs to be transformed to one that citizens of Birmingham deserve - we cannot delay this any longer.

“Although the industrial action continues, our contingency plan is working and we are collecting household waste as scheduled."

It said its new fleet of vehicles was fully operational and making collections. The vehicles are equipped with modern safety features, including 360-degree camera systems to boost visibility and protect both crews and the public, it added.

"We have been collecting an average of approximately 1,330 tonnes of kerbside waste every day, more than we did prior to industrial action, and over the last six months we have collected over 100,000 tonnes of kerbside waste.

“There has been a 22% increase in tonnage of waste collected per employee and a 52% improvement regarding missed collections.

“We want to see this dispute end, we understand residents’ frustration and appreciate their patience over the last few months.”

Striking bin worker Dec says he is set to lose £8,000 from his wages, or facing redundancy, calling the council's position "an attack on people's terms and conditions".

The driver team leader has been working with the team since 1992.

"Do you think this is fair after 33 years of loyal service?" he adds.

"I've no issue with improving the service, I'm of the view that it did need improving, he says.

"But I'm not sure that taking 20 to 25% off frontline workers' wages is going to achieve that," he adds.

"It feels at the moment we're being scapegoated for decisions that were out of our control".

The union claims that, under new council plans, bin lorry drivers' pay could fall from £40,000 to £32,000, which is disputed by the city council.

The authority says it is carrying out a "fair and transparent job evaluation process" to comply with equal pay laws.

"I don't take no pride in the current situation, but I feel as though I've been forced into a corner," Dec says.

"There's not one person on that picket line who would be on a picket line through choice, this is just an attack on people's terms and conditions".

All disputes get resolved eventually with a compromise, according to Press Association industrial correspondent Alan Jones.

"There has to be a compromise, probably on both sides," he said.

"There has to be talks, they have to get back together again, either with or without the conciliation service Acas, and reach some kind of deal."

"I don't think there'll be an outright winner from this," he added, "there rarely is when a strike starts."

"Unless something happens, unless there's a breakthrough, unless there's a deal I think it's virtually certain that this dispute will just carry on and on."

Josh Sandiford
BBC News, West Midlands

The hallway in the home of Birmingham resident Lorraine Boyce 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 BBC 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 dispose of it herself.

You can read more here.

Chloe Hughes
BBC News, West Midlands

Thursday marks six months since Birmingham's bin strike went all-out.

General waste is being largely collected but residents have not had recycling collected since January.

A Birmingham City Council report in July said fly-tipping reports in the city had almost doubled since bin workers started industrial action, adding that enforcement teams were "stretched to capacity".

Here are some up-to-date images of streets across city in the last couple of weeks.

Image source, EPA

Image source, EPA

The industrial action was "heading towards one of the longest running council disputes ever," according to the Press Association's industrial correspondent, Alan Jones, "with absolutely no sign of any breakthrough."

The two sides are "as far apart as they were when this dispute started".

Image source, PA Media

With a renewed mandate to extend the action to next March, the action could be one of the longest running, he added.

Speaking from the Trades Union Congress in Brighton, he said members of the union had been at the event, "lobbying for support, and getting support from other unions as well".

"There's a big rally being planned on 20 September when union members from other parts of the country will go to Birmingham on that Saturday to have another protest to try and see if that shifts things.

"But the bottom line is there is absolutely no sign that this thing is going to get resolved."

Chloe Hughes
BBC News, West Midlands

The all-out strike has been going on for six months, and a lot has happened.

Here is a timeline of how things have progressed:

• 19 December 2024 – More than 350 bin workers vote to strike
• 6 January 2025 – Bin strikes start, with 12 days of action planned between January and April
• 3 February – Extra strike days are added – 12 days in February and 13 days in March
• 11 March – Indefinite all-out strike begins
• 31 March – Birmingham City Council declares a major incident
• 4 April – Mobile bin collection points in the city see mile-long queues
• 5 April – Former deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, meets council leaders to discuss ways to clear the “waste backlog”
• 13 April – Military planners are brought in to help tackle mounting rubbish
• 14 April – Latest deal by Birmingham City Council is rejected by Unite, the strike continues
• 1 May – The council and union enter mediation talks, alongside conciliation service Acas
• 8 May – Castle Bromwich recycling centre’s booking system is suspended as part of a trial to allow flexibility for residents
• 9 May – A “megapicket” is formed at the Lifford Lane refuse depot in Kings Norton
• 15 May – Bin lorries are blocked by striking workers at the Atlas depot in Tyseley
• 5 June – Unite says the strike could continue until December, after members voted to continue
• 9 July – The BBC is told talks to resolve the strike have broken down, and some bin lorry drivers are at risk of compulsory redundancy
• 15 July – Council chiefs say actions on the picket line have delayed rubbish collections
• 2 September – Unite says its members “overwhelmingly” voted to extend the action to March 2026
• 9 September – Bin workers stage a protest outside an employment agency over the authority’s use of agency workers

Josh Tranter
BBC Radio WM, reporting from Northfield

Rob Meese from Northfield said he thought the council had got general waste collections "in hand", but collections of recycling waste "stopped well before Christmas, well before the bin strike".

"Us as residents need to know what's happening," he added.

"We educate the young to do recycling, and it takes some time to get on board, but then all of a sudden everything's going in the same bin.

"I think the council need to get a grip now of what's happening, they need to inform us - the taxpayers of this city - and tell us when we're going to get a decent recycling service."

The city council said the kerbside service had been suspended "but in order to support residents to recycle as much as possible we extended the opening hours of our household recycling centres and the mobile waste centres, with the latter focusing on hotspot areas".

Rachael Lewis
BBC Radio WM

At the picket line on Holford Drive in Perry Barr this week, striking workers said the last six months had been “a struggle”.

Penny Robbins has been been working as a Birmingham City Council bin worker for nearly eight years, and said she was striking because she was “angry and upset”.

"Paying your bills, the cost of food has gone up. Mentally, financially, it’s draining," she said.

Striking members are currently being paid “strike pay” by Unite.

“I’ve always prided myself on being an independent woman, and now I’ve had to turn to family, friends.”

“Imagine how degrading that is, I’ve had to go cap in hand, and I’ve never had to do that before.”

The message from striking workers to Birmingham City Council leader John Cotton is to go to the picket lines and speak to the workers.

“Come out, do our job, come out with us on the road, then you will see that we are worth every penny,” Ms Robbins added.

Gerry Georgieva
BBC Verify

Image source, Reuters

Bin workers can be paid differently, depending on their role.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes estimated earnings, external for the category "refuse and salvage occupations" whose role is to "supervise and undertake the collection and processing of refuse".

According to the ONS, these workers earned an average £26,543 in 2024, which equates to a little over £13 per hour.

The minimum wage for workers over 21 in 2024 was £11.44 per hour.

The National Careers Service says that the pay range for a bin worker is on average between £24,000 and £30,000 per year, or equivalent to between £11.50 and £14.50 an hour.

Birmingham City Council told us in April that the pay band for loaders - the most junior people working on a bin lorry - in Birmingham was £24,027 to £25,992 - that's about £11.50 to £12.50 an hour.

In Birmingham, a typical bin crew consists of a driver, two loaders and a Waste Recycling and Collection Officer (WRCO), but the council now wants to cut the crews to three by getting rid of the role of the WRCOs.

WRCOs are on a higher pay band than the loaders - £26,409 to £32,654.

Unite, the union representing the striking workers, says, external this back-of-the-lorry role is "safety critical" but the council says , externalthat it simply doesn't exist at other councils and health and safety was a responsibility for staff.

It also said keeping the higher-paid role could open up the council to more equal pay claims as refuse collection is a job overwhelmingly performed by men.

Read more: How much do bin workers get paid?

Chloe Hughes
BBC News

Image source, EPA

You can also keep up to date with our coverage on BBC Radio WM, by listening live, or tuning in afterwards via BBC Sounds.

BBC Midlands Today are airing a special programme about the bin strikes, from 18:30 BST, you can also watch this back on BBC iPlayer.

Keep up to date with some of the day's top stories on social media by heading to Facebook, external, Instagram, external and X, external.

Josh Sandiford
BBC News, West Midlands

In Aston, Rob Brough, 56, said his general waste collections were sporadic, with locals managing through regular tip runs.

He and his neighbour Naomi Clooney, 50, showed the BBC 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."

The dispute initially centred on the council's decision to remove Waste Recycling and Collection Officer (WRCO) roles.

The union claimed about 170 affected workers faced losing up to £8,000 a year because of the decision, but the council disputed those figures.

The local authority said the number of staff that could lose the maximum amount (just over £6,000) was 17 people and they would have pay protection for six months.

Unite also urged the council to guarantee long-term pay for Grade 4 bin lorry drivers as part of its briefings surrounding negotiations.

The union had claimed that, under new council plans, bin lorry drivers' pay could fall from £40,000 to £32,000.

The council said it was carrying out a "fair and transparent job evaluation process" to comply with equal pay laws.

Many bin lorry drivers came out on strike alongside other refuse staff.

Saskia Masaun
Reporter, BBC Radio WM

John Mills (pictured above) has told the BBC that he "can't really complain" because he is getting regular collections.

"There has got to be some way around it [the dispute]," he said.

"You hear one story from the council and one story from the union."

Michael Brook said the strikes were a "huge problem" in the city that needed to be dealt with, and told the BBC he believed the council had "made mistakes about equal pay".

"They should just pay the bin people what they want and get the streets cleaned up as a priority," he said.

"Just pay them, they work hard.

"The bin strike doesn't affect me personally, but it does upset me terribly when I see it, to see that the council have let this happen and have let it become a long-standing problem."

Good morning and welcome to live updates on the Birmingham bin strike.

A dispute between the Unite union and Birmingham City Council has seen rubbish collections in the city disrupted since January, with members taking part in an all-out strike since March.

The city council states it needs to transform its waste service due to financial pressures.

Today marks exactly six months since the all-out strike began.

Join us as we speak to those involved in the dispute, as well as those affected by it.