Bulk uplift requests in Glasgow fall after charge introduced

A freedom of information (FOI) request submitted to the local authority has revealed that between July 5 September 20 this year, 3330 bulk waste collections were carried out – just over 1000 a month on average.

And while it is only a short period of time, a comparison with figures from other years suggests a huge drop in demand for the service.

Between July 2018 and June 2019 there were 98,418 bulk collections – an average of more than 8000 a month. This dropped between July 2019 to June 2020 to64,616 – an average of over 5000 collections a month – and between July 2020 to June 2021 to 47,536, or just under 4000 collections a month.

Glasgow City Council says the fall in use is because the amount of household waste recycled in the last year has gone up by 25% meaning that more people are recycling effectively and reducing their carbon footprint.

A spokesman for the council said: “Charging to collect bulk items is about driving a change in how we deal with our waste and encouraging more reuse and recycling of things we otherwise throw away.

“Reuse and recycling extends the life of the materials that we consume, ensures value is retained in those materials and gives them a further use that helps to reduce the carbon footprint of the waste we produce.

“As a city there must be a long term shift in how we deal with our waste if we are to make Glasgow as sustainable as possible and there is clear evidence of improvement.

“Over the past year the amount of household waste recycled in Glasgow has gone up by 25%, the amount sent to landfilled has dropped by almost 40% and the carbon impact of the waste produced by the city has fallen.

“This in large part is due to the way that bulky waste has been handled with more people using our waste centres and housing associations providing a bulk collection service for their tenants, which helps with the separation of waste that leads to more effective recycling.”

The local authority began charging for bulk uplifts this summer to bring Glasgow in line with the majority of other Scottish councils.

It is hoped the move will reduce Glasgow’s carbon footprint while helping the city reach its target of becoming carbon neutral by 2030.

But members of the cleansing department and the city’s Conservative group have been protesting against the charges and urging the local authority to reverse them.

Cleansing staff returned to work today, following eight days of industrial action, over poor working conditions and poor pay.

Workers and the conservatives claim that by inflicting this bulk uplift cost, more people will turn to fly-tipping, making Glasgow’ streets even dirtier.

The FOI also revealed that the number of fly tipping reports made since January 2018 increased from 19,010 complaints to 20,082 in 2019 and 20,458 in 2020.

Between January until the end of September 2021 there have been 19,199 complaints made so far.

The spokesman continued: “We are seeing signs that more and more people are exploring the increasingly informal network of options for reuse that will help reduce how much waste Glasgow produces overall.

“Our information is not showing an increase in fly-tipping reports since charging came in but we are monitoring this situation very closely.”