A cleaning service in Coventry has started emptying bins following the bin collectors strike.
Bin Bath Coventry expanded their services to help residents in Coventry to bring their rubbish to the local pick up point. They now “have a large following locally and residents have been over the moon to have a solution to the ongoing strikes and excessive waste we all have!”
Ian Brownsword, head of Bin Bath Coventry, says: “Our Facebook page Bin Bath Wheelie Bin/Exterior Cleaning has gone mad! We are struggling to keep up with the demand and are fully booked until next week already!
“With the recent strikes ongoing we like many others have struggled with waste especially with the added waste we all have over the Christmas period. We have also not been able to trade as bin cleaners which is our main source of income, not only for us but for our employees too”.
As the second day of a four-day strike by bin lorry drivers throughout the city begins, households in Coventry are facing still more disruption to their bin collections this week.
The strike this week is part of ongoing industrial action by drivers who are members of the Unite trade union, who have announced that they would strike until the end of March.
Concerns over pay and working conditions have prompted the drivers to strike.
Brownsword added: “We hold a valid waste certificate and decided, if we purchased another vehicle that offered a bin emptying service as well as using our cleaning trailer to clean at the same time, that this would not only help local residents and customers of ours by being able to dispose of their waste, but also to have their bins cleaned meaning no smelly long term waste from Christmas in their bins!
“We did want to charge less but due the expenses we have to pay including disposing of waste in the correct manor we do have to charge a certain amount to cover our costs and also to enable us to have a little left over for repairs and for us to keep going too”.
Coventry City Council posted an update with a plan for residents to get their green-lidded bins emptied every other week.
Their statement read: “Whilst there will be no collections this week (week commencing 10 Jan) due to strike action, bins will start being emptied next week (week commencing 17 Jan).
“Recycling collections will be suspended until strike action has ended to concentrate on collecting household waste and garden waste collections remain on pause for the same reason.
“Coventry City Council has appreciated the effort local people have made to use the drop sites and to look after friends, family and neighbours who might not have access to transport. Almost 60,000 vehicles have visited the sites so far dropping off more than 200,000 black bin bags”.
