In a tweet last week, the Labour party leader slammed the Scottish government for its “failure in leadership”, stating that communities had been “left to live and work in unsafe conditions”.
Mr Starmer urged the Scottish Government to intervene in order to make sure the city was ready for COP26.
In response the council explained how, as one of the largest local authorities in the UK, Glasgow faces “huge challenges” over waste management.
However, it argued that to suggest the council was not committed to tackling waste in the city was “misleading”, and reiterated that a large part of its “tight” budget was allocated to environmental protection “year-on-year”.
Glasgow's in a waste crisis after a failure of leadership from the SNP Council.
Workers and communities have been left to live and work in unsafe conditions.
The eyes of the world are on Glasgow – the Scottish Government must intervene to ensure the city is ready to host COP26. pic.twitter.com/8TY7FawxsM
— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) August 5, 2021
Huge challenges
A Glasgow city council spokesperson said: “As one of the largest local authorities in the UK, Glasgow faces huge challenges over waste management.
“The new Resources and Recycling Strategy agreed by all parties fully recognises that the city has a massive task ahead if we are to achieve our recycling targets and reduce the impact of waste-related carbon emissions. One of the main aims within the strategy is to reduce the waste produced by the city while increasing the amount of materials that are reused and recycled, and recent measures have been introduced to support this aim.
“Considering the pressure on council finances, only education and social care budgets surpass the £100 million spent on environmental protection every year. The fact that this spend is maintained year=on-year shows our commitment to tackling these challenges, and it would be misleading to say otherwise.”
Recycling rate
The local authority has previously been criticised for having one of the worst recycling rates in Scotland, which currently stands at 25%.
It has since implemented initiatives to improve its recycling rate. However, it has also faced issues surrounding contamination at certain properties.
In February this year, the council introduced the switch to a three-weekly residual waste collection system, in hopes that it would encourage a greater reliance on recycling bins, which get emptied more frequently (see letsrecycle.com story).
It defended the decision following allegations that a refuse worker had been bitten by a rat while collecting waste.
Other measures introduced by the council to improve Glasgow’s recycling rate include its bin replacement programme. The council said that by removing 50,000 “old fashioned” steel bins from city back courts, a 75% increase in blue bin capacity for recycling had 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. The food waste collections have since been reintroduced.
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