The council has employed agency workers to collect household waste, but at times during the strike piles of rubbish have grown on pavements and recycling has not been collected anywhere in the city since the all-out strike began.
Agency worker collections have been disrupted on several occasions over allegations striking workers had blocked lorries from leaving depots.
The council has reconfirmed that it would go ahead with a new waste collection regime in the summer, even if industrial action continued.
Leader John Cotton recently said putting a timeline on the end of the strike would be foolish as it could not settle on the basis of what Unite has been asking.
Unite has stated there would be no end to the strikes until there was a fair deal. It wants an end to proposed pay cuts for some, which it said would leave them £8,000 a year worse off. The council has denied this would be the case.