The money, to be paid out over three years, will fund the expansion of the city's blue bin kerbside collections for cans, glass, paper and plastics, which began in March 2003 for 28,000 households (see letsrecycle.com story). The money will also be used to introduce a brown bin collection for organic waste and upgrade the council's civic amenity sites.
To support the increasing tonnages of materials from the kerbside collections, the council plans to invest some of the grant into new machinery for the materials recycling facility at Polmadie.
Councillor David Stevenson, convener of the council’s environmental protection services, said: “We very much welcome the announcement regarding the Strategic Waste Fund award for Glasgow city council. This additional funding will enable the council to significantly expand its recycling efforts and initiatives.”
The grant will also fund research into new technologies that the council hopes will dramatically increase its recycling and composting rate for household waste by up to 80%, meeting any future targets that might be set by the Scottish Executive.
Announcing the award, environment minister Ross Finnie said: “The Scottish Executive is committed to transforming Scotland's record on waste reduction, recycling, composting and recovery. This funding will help ensure many households across Glasgow have access to recycling facilities.”
He added: “By funding recycling initiatives such those announced today, we are helping councils meet their recycling targets, and ensuring as many people as possible have the opportunity to recycle.”
Grants
The Scottish Executive has approved two more applications Strategic Waste Fund this month; Western Isles will receive over 900,000 and South Lanarkshire will receive 1.1 million over three years.
South Lanarkshire council plans to invest over 1 million of its grant into a green waste collection to divert 4,600 tonnes from landfill. The remainder will be spent on providing 10,000 households with home composting units.
Mr Finnie said: “This money will make sure households across South Lanarkshire benefit from the opportunity to recycle, providing them with much more sustainable ways of managing their waste.”
The money granted to Western Isles will be invested into kerbside collections, the implementation of waste prevention and minimisation schemes and research into an integrated waste processing system.
Register for free to comment