There has been no breakthrough yet in a move to end the bin strikes spreading to a growing number of councils across Scotland.
Further talks between the three unions involved and Deputy First Minister John Swinney were held last night, but a deal is yet to be agreed.
The unions described the discussions as "constructive" and have asked the Scottish Government to "directly engage" in further negotiations with Cosla, the body representing local government.
Cosla said its rejected pay offer would have meant the lowest-paid 12% of council workers would get more than a 5% increase.
Unions are calling for extra funding from the Scottish Government to pay for a better pay offer for workers providing waste and recycling services.
Bin staff in Edinburgh have been on strike since August 18, with rubbish now piled throughout the city.
Mr Swinney said the issue was "deeply concerning on a host of levels, not least in relation to public health".
Strikes spread to Aberdeenshire
The bin strikes began in Aberdeen yesterday, and the industrial action will also include Aberdeenshire from tomorrow.
Aberdeen City Council is working to minimise the impact of the walk out and has said recycling centres are due to remain open, though they are expected to be busier than usual.
Aberdeenshire Council said on its website: "There may be pockets of disruption to waste collection and recycling centre services from Friday to Monday inclusive. This could apply to trade, street, and communal bins, too.
"Please put your bins out as normal if they are due to be emptied on these days. If your bin is not emptied, please take it back in at the end of the day and plan for it to be emptied on your next scheduled collection day."
Johanna Baxter, Unison Scotland's head of local government, said the union was "a long way" from agreement.
Speaking after the talks with Mr Swinney, she told the BBC: "We welcome that he listened to Unison concerns and was keen to explore how he could support getting council pay talks pay back on track.
"We were clear that we need to rethink not only the construction of the pay offer, so that those on the lowest incomes are fairly treated, we also need to explore ways in which we can increase the overall cash available to come to a fair offer."
Engaging with Cosla
Wendy Dunsmore, industrial officer at the Unite union, said Mr Swinney had told them he would now "engage Cosla on a mechanism which could facilitate funding, but that this would not come directly from the Scottish Government".
She added that the trade unions now want the Scottish Government to "directly engage" in the negotiations with Cosla.
Unite said that, for more than half of local government workers, Cosla's offer represented an offer of between £900 to £1,250 when the UK Government is offering council workers in England a £1,925 flat rate pay offer.
The GMB has described the package on offer as "bitterly disappointing".
But Colsa said its latest pay offer amounts to "one of, if not the best offer in decades for Scottish local government workers" with some workers getting an overall 7.36% increase.
Below are the strike dates at Scottish councils:
Unite - August 24 to 31
Aberdeen, Angus, Clackmannanshire, Dundee, East Ayrshire, East Lothian, East Renfrewshire, Edinburgh, Falkirk, Glasgow, Highland, Inverclyde, South Ayrshire, South Lanarkshire and West Lothian.
Unison - August 26 to 29 and September 7 to 10
Aberdeenshire, Clackmannanshire, East Renfrewshire, Glasgow, Inverclyde, North Lanarkshire, Stirling and South Lanarkshire
GMB - August 26 to 29 and September 7 to 10
Aberdeen, Angus, Dundee, East Ayrshire, East Lothian, Falkirk, Glasgow, Inverclyde, Highland, Midlothian, Orkney, South Ayrshire, South Lanarkshire, West Lothian, Perth and Kinross, and North Lanarkshire.