The well-heeled streets of Red Hill will stink before the end of the week, residents say.
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The ACT government is exploring ways to remove, over the coming days, the rubbish of inner-city homes which missed out on a collection last week.
The government said it was advised by the Transport Workers Union on Friday morning that workers were striking that day.
Homes in several suburbs in Canberra's inner north and south have been left with bins full of rubbish.
Some collectors went back to work on Saturday and the normal schedule of collections resumed this week, but there was not yet a plan to remove the garbage that should have been collected on Friday.
Red Hill resident David Robertson said many neighbours had left their bins on the nature strip this week, hoping they would be collected.
''People haven't yet started putting full bags of rubbish just on the streets because their bins are full, but I can see that happening in the next day or two,'' he said.
Mr Robertson said with warmer weather on Monday there was starting to be a smell around the bins, which would likely get worse.
''We're lucky that it's still winter and that it's not worse than it is,'' he said. ''By the end of this week, I think last week's fish is really going to make itself known.''
The government has offered householders the opportunity to dump rubbish at Mitchell and Mugga Resource Management centres free, and is looking at how to clear the backlog.
The Fair Work Commission on Friday afternoon ordered garbage collectors from contractor Cleanaway to go back to work.
A new contract for household garbage and recycling collection services has been awarded to SITA Australia.
It will operate from October.