Three-weekly kerbside collections for general waste from houses with a front and a back door are to be introduced in in the north west of Glasgow from February 22. The changes do not affect collections cycles for tenements or flats, which the council says comprise 70% of the city’s housing stock.
However, the GMB Union branch 40 — which covers Glasgow — has insisted the local authority reverse the changes, saying it would lead to increased piles of waste dumped next to wheelie bins, encouraging rats. The union claims the city is already undergoing a “a waste crisis, a safety crisis and a financial crisis” after “years of cuts”.
It also alleged a member was bitten by a rat recently, but the council says that a worker was actually scratched when a rat ran over his hand.
A petition started in late January calling on the council to revert to two-weekly collections has garnered more than 3,600 signatures.
A spokesperson from Glasgow city council — which operates in an-house waste collection service — told letsrecycle.com that while Covid-19 restrictions continued to affect the delivery of services, especially in relation to the use of vehicles and depots, the changes to kerbside collections formed part of a wider effort to improve recycling rates in Glasgow.
New arrangements
The spokesperson told letsrecycle.com: “The new arrangements aim to encourage more recycling and will keep Glasgow in step with the national household recycling charter as well as an increasing number of other local authorities.
“These arrangements have been successful in other local authority areas and will help address a situation where over 60% of the contents of a general waste bin could be recycled.
“Early evidence from the introduction of the new arrangements for houses in north east Glasgow shows that three-weekly kerbside collections are working as we hoped they would, which is good for both the environment and the city’s finances.
“Feedback given directly by frontline staff also indicates they welcome the new arrangements as it provides a more efficient and streamlined working environment for staff.”
Glasgow
According to the council, recent figures indicate that Glasgow only recycles 25% of its waste each year. The council hopes the new arrangements for kerbside collections will encourage a greater reliance on recycling bins, as they get emptied more frequently than general waste bins.
“The new arrangements aim to encourage more recycling and will keep Glasgow in step with the national household recycling charter”
Blue bins for dry recyclables such as plastic bottles, aluminium cans, paper and cardboard and brown bins for food and garden waste are to be collected every two weeks. Glass bottles will be uplifted every eight weeks, based on analysis that glass forms just 8% of the waste generated by households.
The council introduced a three-weekly collection pilot scheme in the north east of Glasgow late last year. It says that though the new arrangements are still at an early stage, there are initial signs that recycling rates are improving.
The arrangements will be rolled out in Glasgow South in “due course”, though a date is yet to be confirmed.
Other measures introduced by the council to improve Glasgow’s recycling rate include its bin replacement programme. The council says that by removing 50,000 “old fashioned” steel bins from city back courts, a 75% increase in blue bin capacity for recycling has been implemented at 150,000 flats across Glasgow.
Last August, around 2,500 food waste bins were removed by Glasgow city council from flatted properties around the city where it was claimed contamination had been a significant problem (see letsrecycle.com story).
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