Investing in recycling

Funding to modernise recycling in Scotland’s biggest city and help increase national recycling rates has been announced.

More than £21 million has been awarded to Glasgow City Council through the Scottish Government’s Recycling Improvement Fund to support the introduction of a new twin-stream service for the separate collection of recyclable materials.

This will give residents separate collections of fibre (paper and cardboard) and containers (metals, plastics, cartons and film), improving both the quality and quantity of recyclables captured.

Circular Economy Minister Lorna Slater announced the funding on a visit to Glasgow’s current recycling facilities at Blochairn. Glasgow City Council has committed £20 million of its own budget to develop a new Materials Recycling Facility to process the twin collections, alongside other waste centre facilities. This will ensure capacity to process the increase in recycling collected and means that more materials will be reprocessed for new uses rather than thrown away.

Glasgow manages the largest share of household waste of any local authority in Scotland. This project will save over 6,000 tonnes of CO2 every year.

Circular Economy Minister Lorna Slater 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.

“This is a big year for recycling, with Scotland’s deposit return scheme going live on 16 August and our ambitious Circular Economy Bill being published soon for Parliament to scrutinise. These actions will boost recycling across the country, and make a major contribution to the fight against the climate crisis.”

Councillor Ruairi Kelly, City Convener for Neighbourhood Services and Assets, said:

“This funding award is great news for Glasgow and a huge vote of confidence in our plans for recycling in city.

“Our 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, CEO 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.”

Background

The Recycling Improvement Fund is administered by Zero Waste Scotland on behalf of the Scottish Government.

The funding award will be submitted for approval to the City Administration Committee on Thursday 26 January.

Stirling Council has also received an award of £234,000. This will fund improvements at all three of its Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs), including: improved signage; the introduction of additional recycling of materials currently not separated such as treated wood and laminates, carpets, mattresses, hard plastics and cooking oils; and expanding its reuse partnership with Transition Stirling and NHS Forth Valley to more local HWRCs.

Since the Recycling Improvement Fund opened in March 2021, the total sum awarded is over £44 million.