EXCLUSIVE: The cost to Glasgow Council of transporting and treating waste in other parts of the UK and overseas comes to nearly £13m.
Domestic waste in Glasgow is being sent thousands of miles away to Spain and Germany.
The cash-strapped SNP council has shelled out nearly £13m for the city’s rubbish to be sent to other parts of the UK and abroad.
Glasgow Labour councillor Paul Carey, who uncovered the figures, said: “I am astonished and concerned that this waste is leaving Scotland to go to other countries. The question is: do we have the equipment to recycle this waste here? If not, why not?
“We could be creating jobs in Glasgow if we had the infrastructure to recycle our own waste.”
It was revealed recently that Scots councils would be sending truckloads of waste to England every day once a landfill ban comes in at the end of the year.
The SNP government is banning “black bag” waste from being buried in landfill and waste will have to be sent south of the border as a temporary solution.
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Glasgow council has confirmed that some of its waste ends up in Europe as part of the drive to boost recycling.
In a freedom of information response, town hall chiefs said they had not sent any waste directly to landfill since October 2023.
They added: “Due to the lack of re-processing facilities within the Glasgow City Council boundaries, the majority of the other waste managed by the council is sent out with the city for treatment.
“A small quantity of waste may initially be sent to facilities in Glasgow for some pre-treatment, for example, mixed papers, but end destinations will be out with the city.”
Paper, cardboard and plastic bottles from the “old blue bins” in the city are initially sent to a contractor in Northern Ireland.
Materials are then transported to facilities across the UK to be recycled into new products, as well as to re-processing plants in Germany, Netherlands, Belgium and Spain.
Grey bin waste, which covers plastic and metal containers, also ends up in the same EU countries for reprocessing.
A mill in England is used for paper while the “next destination” for food and garden waste is listed as York.
The council, led by SNP councillor Susan Aitken, said the total bill for sending and treating waste last year was around £12.8m.
Critics say moving waste overseas harms the environment and is a lost opportunity for the domestic economy.
Scot Lib Dem net zero spokesperson Sanne Dijkstra-Downie said: “We knew that the SNP planned to ship waste to England. Now they’re shipping it off to Germany and Spain too.
“The dirty secret of this SNP Government is that there is now little hope of them meeting their own pledges to drive down waste. It looks set to be yet another broken promise. Shipping loads of rubbish to be disposed of abroad is even worse for the environment than landfilling it here due to the emissions generated by these journeys.”
Tory MSP Annie Wells said: “It’s utterly farcical that waste collected in Glasgow is ending up in countries like Spain and Germany while SNP Ministers lecture the public about doing their bit for the environment.
“This is what happens when the SNP Government slashes council funding or fails to invest in Scotland’s own waste infrastructure.
“Soon, we’ll have dozens of landfill trucks driving to England every day. “If the SNP want people to take recycling seriously, they need to get their own house in order first and support councils to dispose of waste in their local area.”
A Glasgow council spokesman said: “Glasgow’s aim is to increase recycling performance, divert as much waste from landfill as possible and reduce the carbon impact of the city’s waste . There are clear signs of improvement in waste-related carbon emissions, landfill levels and recycling performance.
“Annual landfill is now almost 120,000 tonnes lower than it was in 2018 when the city’s recycling and renewable energy centre opened. Waste-related carbon emissions have also fallen significantly, down by over 125,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions in the past three years.
“Recycling rates are also rising following a range of measures to encourage more household recycling. We are hopeful we will see further improvements in recycling rates as further reforms and substantial investment are implemented. We are expanding the range of materials that all Glasgow householders can recycle and our new material recycling facility at Queenslie will dramatically improve how we sort and separate recyclable waste.”
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