Waste workers are protectors of our environment, we must support them
Waste workers across half of Scotland’s councils are striking for better pay. The service these workers provide often goes unseen, but our daily life and work depend on the bins being emptied and streets being cleaned.
Waste workers deserve decent pay for their work, which can be difficult and unsafe. Creating high quality waste management jobs in Scotland is an important part of developing a sustainable future. Workers and their knowledge are key to creating a better waste management system.
Environmental campaigners should support waste workers’ fight for decent wages.
The waste workers strike
Waste workers are striking in 16 councils across Scotland, including in Edinburgh, which is currently packed full of tourists for the festival. The strike starts on 14 August and will last for eight days.
Like other council workers, waste workers have suffered below inflation wage rises, amounting to a real terms pay cut, throughout the cost-of-living crisis. They deserve the pay rise they are asking for, and we are standing in solidarity with them as they take strike action, at great cost to themselves, to fight for better conditions for everyone who takes on this vital but often undervalued work.
People who work in waste protect our health and our environment by picking up and managing our rubbish from our homes and businesses. We lauded them as key workers during the covid lockdowns and know from previous strikes how quickly problems such as rat infestations and our streets and parks being covered in litter can arise without them. Yet, their pay is being eroded with sub-inflation pay increases – effectively pay cuts – year on year.
Their work is often unsafe and even deadly – six waste workers died across the UK in 2022-2023. That is about ten times higher than the all industry average. In the past decade, five thousand waste workers in the UK suffered work related illness, most of which were related to injuries from slips or to stress and anxiety. We have been told by waste workers in Scotland that, despite asking managers, they are often not provided with the correct PPE to do their work safely, such as needle resistant gloves when picking up waste in city centres.
While it is often invisible work, there is no denying that waste workers provide a vital service and that their job can be dangerous and difficult. They must be paid fairly for this.
A just transition to a fairer waste management system
Waste workers are at the sharp end of a broken industry. Many products are unrecyclable and confusing bin systems means that rubbish often ends up in the wrong place. A Scottish Government funded study found that over half of household waste thrown away could have been recycled. In 2021, a waste management company was fined £20,000 – the largest fine of this sort ever in Scotland – after it attempted to export 1,300 tonnes of rubbish containing used nappies and dog waste as paper for recycling. This is the poorly managed and ineffective system that waste workers must navigate daily. They see where the system isn’t working, and their job is more difficult and dangerous than it should be.
As well as fair pay, waste workers need better working conditions. Making sure the working environment meets minimum safety requirements should be a priority for policy makers and management. This should include providing the correct PPE and improving the awareness of householders and business operators on how to minimise the dangers of the rubbish they throw away.
Other opportunities for how working conditions could be improved should be explored. The largest public sector trial of a 4-day working week was conducted in Cambridgeshire in 2023. This means staff were asked to do the same amount of work in 80% of their contracted hours without losing any pay. It found that fewer refuse collectors quit.
A more efficient waste management system, working as it was designed to, would also improve conditions for waste workers.
Circular economy plans could transform waste management in Scotland
In June this year, the Scottish Parliament approved a new law which aims to create the framework needed to develop a circular economy. It is a vital part of addressing the climate crisis as over 80% of our carbon footprint in Scotland is related to the materials we consume.
In a circular economy, materials are only taken from nature when absolutely necessary. A circular economy prioritises waste prevention and over landfill and incineration, by prioritising reuse, repair and recycling.
If managed properly, moving to this system will present opportunities for new jobs to be created and those working in the industry to be skilled up in other areas.
A recent report from ReLondon found that the UK’s capital had a skills gap in its plans to develop a circular economy. The city will need an additional 284,000 jobs by 2030.
Scotland’s waste sector will require a similar level of transformation and there are many more job opportunities in reuse and recycling compared to incineration and landfill.
Workers must be supported in a just transition from the old waste sector to the new circular economy one. This means the Scottish Government must provide financial support for workers and families, opportunities to train and learn new skills and clear pathways to fill gaps in the new economy. Jobs in reuse and repair are typically more highly skilled than traditional waste management jobs. Where new jobs require more skill, pay must increase appropriately and fairly.
The role of waste workers in creating a circular economy
The workers who sit at the heart of this change must be involved from the very start of this transformation. As well as a fair pay deal today, Scotland’s waste workers must have a say in the future of their sector. That should start with a meaningful plan, developed in collaboration with those who work in the industry, to transform the roles of workers in the sector fairly, to a circular economy.
The move to a circular economy must happen quickly to prevent further destruction of our environment. Waste workers have vast knowledge of the sector that can be used to improve the system as fast as possible. They understand where the gaps, failings and health and safety issues are in the current system and will be instrumental in the creation of a new system.
What needs to happen now?
We fully support the current strikes by waste workers in their fight for fair pay for the work that they do. Waste workers across Scotland should be given the pay rise they are asking for.
Health and safety improvements are urgently needed to improve waste workers’ working conditions. Plans for improvement should include waste workers themselves, as they have the most direct knowledge of how the system is failing.
Waste workers should also be consulted on how to make Scotland’s waste management system more efficient and sustainable. The goal should be to minimise waste and ensure no material is thrown away unnecessarily, but when this does happen, waste should be managed sustainably and effectively.
As Scotland starts to move towards a circular economy to tackle the impact of over-consumption on our planet, it’s more important than ever that we have a well-paid workforce in a well-resourced waste and material management service.
We fully support the current strikes by waste workers as an important part of fighting for this more sustainable and fair future and call on other environmental campaigners to support waste workers too.