Glasgow awarded £21m to boost recycling rates

Scotland’s largest council has been awarded more than £21 million to help boost recycling rates.

Glasgow City Council will receive the cash from the Scottish Government’s Recycling Improvement Fund – the largest award from the fund to date.

The money will be used to help fund separate collections of different materials, with a new twin-stream service which will see paper and cardboard items collected separately from containers, such as metals, plastics and cartons.

Glasgow City Council has also committed £20 million from its own budget to develop a new facility to process the waste collected, with local authority leaders saying this should see more materials being processed for future use rather than being thrown away.

Circular economy minister Lorna Slater announced the funding on a visit to the city’s recycling centre at Blochairn, and said: “By investing more than £21 million towards improving facilities in Glasgow, we will help make it easier for households to recycle and increase local recycling rates.

“This is the largest single investment to date from our £70 million Recycling Improvement Fund.

“With Glasgow being Scotland’s biggest local authority area, it will also make an important contribution to the national recycling picture.”

It comes as part of what she described as a “big year for recycling”, with Scotland’s deposit return scheme being introduced in August.

She said ministers will also publish an “ambitious” Circular Economy Bill, adding: “These actions will boost recycling across the country and make a major contribution to the fight against the climate crisis.”

Ruairi Kelly, Glasgow City Council’s convener for neighbourhood services and assets, said the Government cash is “great news for Glasgow and a huge vote of confidence in our plans for recycling in city”.

He added: “Blochairn centre is showing its age and the funding will help us to build a new recycling facility that ensures material from household recycling bins is sorted much more effectively.

“We will also invest in an expanded recycling service for kerbside collections.

“These measures will ensure more of Glasgow’s waste goes on to be recycled, which is good for Glasgow’s recycling rates, but also for sustainability in Scotland as a whole.”

Iain Gulland, chief executive at Zero Waste Scotland, said: “The Recycling Improvement Fund exists to help councils improve and invest in their recycling and reuse services, helping citizens up and down the country move towards a circular economy, where materials and products are kept in use as long as possible.

“Zero Waste Scotland is happy to support Glasgow City Council in what is a significant and transformative project to increase their operational capacity for recycling, as well as to improve the quality of materials collected.

“We look forward to supporting more local authorities through this fund in the future.”