Here are the stories making the local and national business headlines this morning.
Bin strike talks continue but still no resolution
Talks to try to end the council strike in Scotland are set to enter their fifth day today.
Bin strikes now affect two thirds of Scotland's local authorities and rubbish is building up in many town and city centres.
Discussions between the unions and the council's umbrella body, Cosla, took place on Sunday. There is still no new offer but the BBC believes it is possible one may be made on Monday.
First direct China-Scotland shipping route begins
More than a million bottles of whisky will leave the west coast of Scotland later in the country's first direct shipping container service to China.
The new shipping route has been hailed as a "game changer for Scotland".
The Allseas Pioneer arrived in Greenock from Ningbo in China earlier, carrying containers of textiles, furniture and toys for sale in Scotland. The BBC says the direct sailings will reduce freight transit times, compared to services via Europe or southern UK ports.
Cash has just five years left, warns ATM boss
The chief of the UK’s largest ATM network has warned that cash has as little as five years left, as the country’s infrastructure experiences “death by a thousand cuts”.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, cash use is down by 40% – and a recent report from UK Finance, the banking trade body, estimates that just one in every 20 transactions will be made using cash by 2031.
“The cost of providing cash infrastructure, which includes the ATMs, security and bulk cash centres is huge at £5bn a year,” John Howells, chief executive at Link, tells the Telegraph.
“This infrastructure will start to fall apart unless something is done, and we are already seeing ATMs and branches closing at a worrying rate,” said Mr Howells.
Celebrate Aberdeen lights up Union Street
Leaders of the flagship Celebrate Aberdeen parade have hailed the marchers who turned out to transform Union Street into a sea of colours yesterday.
The popular event celebrates the contribution of the third sector to the city. Thousands turned out yesterday for its comeback following a three-year hiatus caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Lord provost David Cameron led the procession from the Holburn Junction to the Castlegate. Locals turned out in fancy dress while bagpipes rang out around the city centre.
Businesses fear months of disruption as threat of port strikes spreads
A strike by port workers at Felixstowe comes to an end today - but unions are threatening more action if a better pay offer is not forthcoming.
Felixstowe port is normally one of the busiest shipping destinations in Britain but the shipping hub came to a stop last week as 1,900 workers went on strike.
Dockworkers at the port, which usually handles almost half of all of Britain's container deliveries, walked out after its owner CK Hutchison refused to hand them a pay rise of at least 10%.
Union leaders are threatening to reboot their industrial action in the coming weeks if the conglomerate doesn't increase its offer, which Felixstowe says is currently worth between 8.1%and 9.6% this year. Leaders have told the Telegraph the dispute could drag on until Christmas, causing havoc to national supply chains.
Be less squeamish about drinking 'sewage water', says expert
People need to be 'less squeamish' about drinking water taken from sewage treatment plants, the head of the England's Environment Agency has said.
Water companies are planning "toilet-to-tap" systems, also known as water recycling, to turn sewage from lavatories into drinking water by treating it.
By 2030, toilet water could be deposited into rivers near treatment plants so it can be collected and processed as drinking water.
Writing in the Sunday Times, Sir James Bevan said the "unpopular" move would help protect the UK's water supply. Sir James said drinking water reprocessed from sewage is "perfectly safe and healthy, but not something many people fancy".