We visited Small Heath, one of the areas worst hit by Birmingham’s ongoing bin strike, to see the impact on residents and businesses as waste piles up and tensions grow.
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00:00Here in Small Heath, you don't have to look far to see the consequences of the bin strike.
00:08Black bags piled up on corners, furniture dumped in alleyways and the smell of rotting
00:13food clinging to the air. There's no guessing when the next collection might happen and
00:18for many it's become a part of daily life. Whether you're raising a family, running a
00:23business or simply walking to school, the rubbish is unavoidable. So what kind of toll
00:29is this ongoing disruption taking on the people who live and work here?
00:35It's becoming a joke. You see rubbish everywhere on the roads. Rats all around the roads, outside
00:40the shops, outside houses. We had to do two visits to the recycling centre. We took the
00:47rubbish away. Inconvenience. We pay tax. So we expect it to be done.
00:53The big toll on the people that live here as estates, the place is just really bad.
00:59It smells, there's like all clothes in that round the corner. There's just rubbish everywhere.
01:06You don't even want to go to the shops because there's big rats everywhere, especially in
01:10the night. Rats are everywhere.
01:13It's difficult because we've got bins all over the place. Everyone's not, our bins are
01:20totally full up and we're having to take it around to the main road to put them here
01:26so that they can get removed somewhere. Because we can't have it all piling up around us.
01:32It's difficult.
01:33The council says extra crews are on the ground but here in Small Heath it's hard to see the
01:38difference. As rubbish mounts so do concerns, not just about how it looks but what it could
01:43mean for people's health. Rats and flies have become more common and some say they're scared
01:49to open their windows or let their children play outside. The longer the strike goes on
01:54the greater the risks become. So how are these sanitation issues affecting daily routines
01:59and peace of mind?
02:03Sanitation and all that, I mean it's the smell. There's rats, we've seen rats where I live
02:08which we've never seen before and obviously because the bins haven't been emptied since
02:13January and the weather's getting warmer, it really smells, yeah.
02:20It's affecting it greatly because you know obviously germs and stuff like that, it affects
02:25your health doesn't it, do you know what I mean? I'm currently suffering a sinus infection
02:29myself and it doesn't help all the dirt and the bacteria that's in the air. It's not good.
02:35Yeah it's horrible. We don't like rubbish, we always try to clean up our own stuff. I
02:39have enough trouble cleaning up my own house because other people are messy in there and
02:43I've got gardens and things like that. I can't even take my garden waste out anymore and
02:47things like that so it's difficult because we can't keep the place clean.
02:53It really affects people's mental health as well, the smell outside. It's not hygienically good.