A councillor has hit out over lack of recycling provision in his area, saying it flies in the face of Renfrewshire Council's green ambitions.
Jamie McGuire says the lack of facilities in his Renfrew ward are a "disgrace in 2022", especially when the recent COP26 climate change summit - which welcomed world leaders focused on ambitious targets to battle global warming and threw the spotlight on the Clydeside - was just minutes away.
Councillor McGuire, who represents the Renfrew North and Braehead ward, told the Express: "One issue that has persistently come up is that there are no recycling bins in the whole of Renfrew.
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"People are doing all the hard work at home, recycling, washing things out to bin, but when they go out and they go into Robertson Park or wherever, there are no recycling bins, just general waste."
The Labour politician added: "I think there needs to be a real campaign, if you want to have a greener Renfrewshire, there has to be a real effort made.
If the local government hasn't got in place the essentials like bins, how can you expect people to follow it?
"It's a real disgrace in 2022, especially when the COP26 summit was just down the road and here we are facing the fact that we don't even have recycling bins in our own towns.
"There has been a lot of talk about being green but it's obviously not being followed through."
Councillor McGuire continued: "If Renfrewshire Council has real green ambitions then it has to do it properly.
"I go up to the recycling centre a couple of times a month because my bins end up overflowing but then you go into your own town and rubbish has to go in general waste because of a lack of bins."
Renfrewshire Council declared a climate emergency in the area in 2019, following a motion which received cross-party support and established a working group to make recommendations to ensure the area can become carbon neutral by 2030.
They appointed a Climate Emergency Lead Officer to help develop sustainable solutions to tackle climate change.
The authority also forked out for a fleet of 14 new electric vans and two buses in November 2021 - boasting that they were in possession of a total of 119 electric vehicles then almost one third of the fleet.
A council spokesperson said: “We are keen to do everything we can to recycle as much of Renfrewshire waste as possible, as part of our ambitious plan to help tackle the climate emergency.
“In recent years, Renfrewshire has been significantly above the national average for the percentage of waste diverted away from landfill and we are grateful for everything our residents are doing to make that happen."
He added: "We want to make it as easy as possible for residents to help us improve our rates even further, and are happy to liaise with the councillor to discuss what else we can do in this area to help that.”
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