THE time: October 2021. The city, Glasgow. The global event, COP26. With bin collectors across Scotland’s councils in a dispute over pay with national body Cosla, those in Glasgow were set to strike, maximising their impact as the eyes of the world turned to Scotland’s largest city.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar was having a field day, literally. The Glasgow MSP was out and about on the city’s streets gesturing at fly-tipped tables and chatting next to full skips.
“If we can’t meet a simple obligation of people’s rubbish being collected, for them to live in safe, secure and clean environments and not have rats running about the streets, then I’m sorry – that’s frankly letting them down and I’m not willing to let that happen,” he said.
Fast-forward ten months. The time is now August 2022. The city is Edinburgh, and the global event is its world-renowned cultural festivals, back in full swing for the first time since Covid-19 hit.
Once again, there are local strikes amid a national dispute over pay with the local authority body Cosla. A 5% pay increase has been offered to unions – despite Labour and Tory councils voting to offer only 3.5% – but the strikes will go on until a vote can be held.
Edinburgh is facing up to eleven days of industrial action. But unlike Glasgow, the capital’s council is controlled by Sarwar’s Scottish Labour (with the help of the Tories and LibDems).
So where is the Labour leader? It’s not like he hasn’t been to Edinburgh – he appeared alongside Douglas Ross at the Fringe.
But as the rubbish piles up on Edinburgh’s streets – regardless of whether or not Sarwar’s there to gesture at it – the world is taking notice.
Edinburgh on day five of the bin strike. Someone handing out flyers on the Grassmarket just pitched their show with: “Get out of the rubbish, come and see a comedy show” pic.twitter.com/u2AUyZpkrn
— Alistair Grant (@alistairkgrant) August 22, 2022
The effect on Twitter is stark. The website’s search engine suggests the word “rubbish” after Edinburgh is put in, and posts with pictures of rubbish lining the streets dominate.
Anecdotal concerns are widely shared of the impact on the city's global reputation, with visitors from around the world taking back stories of the state of the streets.
Even the Tories have urged action to prevent an “international embarrassment” – which, considering the international embarrassment those same Tories were happy to have leading them, suggests something must really be up.
And what’s Edinburgh Council doing? Asking people to keep all their rubbish in their homes, essentially.
“Please don't put your bins out for collection during the strike,” the council tweeted. “Collections are suspended. The strike is expected to last until Aug 30.”
Please don't put your bins out for collection during the strike. Collections are suspended. The strike is expected to last until 30 Aug. Find the latest updates and advice on our website https://t.co/O7wol3Hdw5 pic.twitter.com/ORlyPRaXK1
— The City of Edinburgh Council (@Edinburgh_CC) August 18, 2022
That's about as much use as Tory MSP and local government spokesperson Miles Briggs, who argued that better preparation could have avoided the worst impacts of the strikes. The preparation he had in mind? "Providing additional bins." Genius.
Elsewhere, one post shared on the popular website Reddit’s message board /mildlyinfuriating reads: “There is an 11 day bin man strike in Edinburgh and this is only day two. Most of the city is like this.”
The “subreddit” has some 4.7 million members around the world.
The Edinburgh post has almost 94,000 “upvotes”, enough to make it the fifth most popular post of the past 30 days. Not bad considering it was only uploaded over the weekend.
It’s also been shared to dozens of other subreddits, with conversation about the state of the city’s streets going truly global. Comparisons to New York, Naples, and London were rife among the some 5500 comments.
“The level of rubbish is incredible,” one user commented on the post. “I had seen the pictures but it wasn’t until I walked from Waverley this morning I actually realised how bad it is.
“The whole city centre looks and smells like a rotting bin. I could barely push my kids buggy along the pavements it was piled so high. Really sad and embarrassing to see the city like that.”
“Fringe festival + binmen strike = impending rat infestation?” another added.
Surely not. Sarwar is “not willing to let that happen” after all.
