It can be easy to forget just how magnificent it is that, in the modern era, we dump our garbage into a can, then men come around and dump that can into a truck, and the garbage goes away from us forever.
And as the city of Birmingham, England, has discovered, when the men stop dumping the cans of garbage into the truck, you get, well, as the Guardian reports, "maggots, rats and growing despair:"
The bin strike in Birmingham hit headlines in March when the council declared a major incident due to 17,000 tonnes of rubbish that had built up on the streets and was attracting vermin. ...
[In December, with] the workforce still striking, the council is relying on a smaller agency workforce which means collections are sporadic in some areas and there have been no recycling bin collections anywhere in the city since early January.
When your garbage crew goes on strike for pretty much an entire year, the end result is just completely predictable:
And yeah, it's real bad there:
[Warning: Language]
As the Guardian reports, town residents "have started to cram all their rubbish, including cardboard boxes, cans and bottles, into one general waste bin and they're often overflowing by the time bin collection day comes round."
One local tradesman describes the unthinkable vermin situation:
Robert Charlton, who runs his own pest control business in Birmingham, says it had been his busiest year since he first started working in the industry 11 years ago, and he has been gearing up for a hectic Christmas period. 'It's starting to pick up again because rodents are looking for food and shelter, so I'm getting more phone calls,' he says. 'I've hardly had any days off, to be honest. At the peak, I was working from 8am to 8pm every day.'
He says most of his callouts were for mice and rats, as well as dead foxes who had been snooping around the piled-up bin bags, and he had to deal with some very distressed families. 'Last month I was called to a house and we caught 23 rodents. It was crazy - the worst I have seen in my career,' he says.
Living in England and looking out your window these days only to see:
Don't worry, though, per the Guardian, another strike is likely on the way and "threatens to make things worse."
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