SCOTLAND’S largest council has been awarded more than £21 million to help boost recycling rates.
In the largest award from the fund to date, the Scottish Government’s Recycling Improvement fund will offer Glasgow City Council the money to help fund separate collections.
This includes a new twin-stream service, which will see paper and cardboard collected separately from metals, plastics and cartons.
Glasgow City Council has also committed £20m from its own budget to develop a new facility to process the waste collected, with local authority leaders saying this should see more materials 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. She said: “By investing more than £21m towards improving facilities in Glasgow, we will help make it easier for households to recycle and increase local recycling rates.
“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 boost is “great news for Glasgow and a huge vote of confidence in our plans for recycling in city”.
He added: “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.”
