Glasgow commercial waste project soon to rollout across city

Published: 20 March 2018

From the beginning of April, the project will be rolled-out across the whole of Glasgow by early March 2019, with the north-west of the city the next area to see these changes, with compliance by 15 September. The south side will be compliant, with the north-east to follow by 2 March 2019.

The primary aim of the project - which was achieved in the eight pilot areas within the city centre - was to substantially reduce the adverse impact of the then current waste collection practices (especially the use of bulky, brightly-coloured commercial waste containers on streets, pavements and lanes) to enhance the city centre's appearance making it more pleasant for to live, work, study and visit there.

An additional aim was the tackling of accessibility and recycling issues as well as the reduction of the amount of spilled waste and litter on city centre streets and lanes. The council engaged with city centre stakeholders throughout this process, and a survey found strong support from local residents and businesses, with the latter period of the pilot project seeing the eight locations completely clear of the 460 commercial waste containers that had previously been stored on the area's streets.

Keep Scotland Beautiful carried out an evaluation of the project on behalf of the council, which found an improvement in environmental conditions with the highest cleanliness score in a decade as a result.  This, along with other data compiled by the council, underlined the need for the project to continue and be extended into other parts of the city.

Councillor Kenny McLean, City Convener for Neighbourhoods, Housing and Public Realm, said: "The commercial waste pilot has been a great success in the city centre, and in a couple of weeks it will begin its welcome rollout across the rest of Glasgow. We can all look forward to the project leaving us with a cleaner, greener and safer city."

The timetable for the project's expansion was informed by public complaints and where enforcement action had to be taken for related issues.  Activity in each roll-out stage will be targeted initially at higher population areas in the major centres of each part of the city.