It's everywhere you look: street corners, abandoned lots and local parks, although you tend to smell it before you see it.
For six weeks, residents in Birmingham, the United Kingdom's second-largest city, haven't had their rubbish collected.
Bin workers are locked in an industrial dispute with the city council, and have been on strike since March 11.
With household trash overflowing, locals — known colloquially as Brummies — have been dumping their waste anywhere they can.
Now, mounds rubbish bags are strewn around the city, sparking public health concerns and a rodent infestation that's made global headlines.
Every gust of wind carries the pungent reminder of a crisis for which there's no end in sight.
The council and workers are at odds over a decision to scrap some positions the relevant union describes as "safety critical".
The union claims it could will leave up to 170 employees £8,000 ($16,650) worse off annually, but the city disputes that.
Matters have been made more complicated by the precarious position of Birmingham's finances; last year the council was forced to declare itself effectively bankrupt.
On Tuesday, a union spokesperson described the latest offer put forward as "totally inadequate".
Negotiations have become so toxic that the UK's Labour government has weighed in, with Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner urging workers to sign the agreement and ordering the army to help deal with logistical challenges the strike has created.
Still, the impasse continues.
Ayoub Khan, an independent MP and lifelong Birmingham resident, told the ABC the crisis dated back to 2022, when the city hosted the Commonwealth Games.
"The athletes' village and the project around the Commonwealth Games, which cost the council hundreds of millions of pounds, and the failure there has led to this deficit, this black hole," he said.
"The leadership are responsible for managing for finances and they've been extremely poor at that and that's led to the fly tipping and what we see on the streets today."
Mr Khan has called for Downing Street to intervene.
"The city centre is bustling, it's clean, but if you stem slightly out of here, the level of deprivation is quite substantial," he said.
"There needs to be investment. There's no other way of resolving the problems. We just need extra support."
Mr Khan said he wanted to see the UK government increase investment in the country's communities, including Birmingham.
"The government can raise money when it needs to, look at the money its spent on wars," he said, in reference to the billions of pounds in financial and military aid Britain has given Ukraine.
"We can conjure up money when we need it, and we need to do it for our citizens. I think people here are disenfranchised."
Birmingham council is the largest local authority in Europe. The city itself is one of the UK's more impoverished communities.
According to key indicators from Britain's Office of National Statistics, Birmingham's modelled unemployment rate in 2023 was 7.2 per cent, which is more than double the UK average (3.4 per cent).
Life expectancy for adult men and women in the city is at least three years lower than the UK average.
Multiple organisations also rank Birmingham as a child poverty hotspot, with almost 50 per cent of people under 18 living in a household with an income below 60 per cent of the UK median.
'Rat as big as a cat'
It's not hard to find Brummies beside themselves about the bin strike.
Sunny, a resident of the city's outer suburbs, said he was "appalled" at the state of his hometown.
"It's in a bankruptcy, it's in a right state, they cant even afford to clean up the streets. I mean God knows this place is as rubbish as it looks," he said.
"My street is just absolutely disgusting, like dead rats on the streets ... there's just loads of rubbish everywhere."
Olu, who lives in the vibrant, multicultural area of Sparkhill, says the handling of the pay dispute has been "appalling".
"If something can be done about it and if they can pick it up they need to do it. I understand the reason for the strike and if doing it makes them seen and understood then I back it, but we are the ones that are suffering,"
Olu says rubbish is piling up around her home and that she's now scared to walk past the piles of garbage on the streets.
"I just say to my husband you need to take the rubbish out," she said.
"There's been a build-up of rodents near where I live, which is all apartments. I've seen a rat as a big as a cat, I'm not joking, I'm serious."
The massive rodents have made headlines around the world, and although there have been some claims their size is being exaggerated, the fact rats are relishing the rubbish is not up for debate.
Tahir Rabad who owns a car repair shop said his mechanics had repaired the electrics on dozens of cars since the strike started because rats had eaten through wiring.
"This has definitely been the most we've ever had. We get the odd one now and again [with rat damage] but the last week we've had about 15," he said.
"The rodents come from the rubbish and are going into the car, the car is quite warm when the engine has been on and the rats are looking for a warm place.
"It's an inconvenience for the people because it's hard to work out what is wrong with the car."
While working on the rat damage Mr Rabad, who's lived in Birmingham his entire life, has become increasingly concerned about the health effects swarms of rodents will have on his workers and the broader community.
"When they do urine on the engine our guys have to work on that and that's where a lot of diseases come from and that's the annoying part," he said.
"The rubbish will eventually be cleared but the infestation of rodents is going to last a long time.
"We're probably not going to see the damage of that straight away but the way the rats multiply ... we're going to see the damage of that over the future."
Birmingham City Council has been contacted for comment.
It's engaged private contractors and volunteers to help clear a lot of the rubbish, and while soldiers haven't been deployed, the government has engaged office-based military staff to help with logistics.
Council officials have said their offer to bin workers is "fair and reasonable" and the door remains open for further negotiation.
