Bin strike sparks serious illness fears

It’s been four weeks since the last collection, with rats becoming a common sight. 

It’s led to waste experts raising concerns that locals may catch Leptospirosis. 

According to the NHS, Leptospirosis is “spread in the pee of infected animals, most commonly rats, mice, cows, pigs and dogs”. 

The NHS says the top symptoms include:  

• High temperature 
• Headache 
• Body aches and pain 
• Tummy ache 
• Feeling sick or being sick 
• Diarrhoea 
• Redness in the white part of your eyes 
• Yellowing of the skin (which may be harder to see on black or brown skin) or white part of the eyes (jaundice)  

Waste Expert Mat Stewart of SunSkips said the chances of Leptospirosis becoming an issue are growing. “If you ingest or get urine into your system from a rat, you could catch Leptospirosis,” he shared. 

“It could happen if you've been down to chuck your waste on to everybody else's waste and you've touched something, or you've had bags outside that a rat may have been on. 

“You have to make sure you've got good hygiene when you get home. 

“Wash your hands or wear gloves and do whatever you can to keep safe.” 

Mat’s also concerned about what type of waste is building up. “The real problematic waste is clinical waste, you know, people on kidney dialysis, that sort of stuff,” he revealed. 

“Or people that have issues with incontinence, that sort of material. 

“That's clinical waste and that's probably the worst.” 

Mat fears things will only get worse with the warm weather. “With this sort of temperature, give it a while and it'll be flies next,” he said. 

“The flies will start, then the maggots will form, the maggots will hatch, the flies will come, and that'll be the next thing. 

“Following that it’s odours, and then people get really emotional and emotive.”