Recycling more materials

Glasgow is recycling about one fifth of all waste in 2011. There is a lot more to do to ensure that we are recycling and composting 50% by 2013, 60% by  2020 and 70% by 2025.  (These targets coverall Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) and  help the Scottish Government deliver EU targets)


There are street recycling bins for glass, paper, cans, clothing and plastic bottles across all areas of Glasgow. Households are provided with a range of bins to recycle various items from grass cuttings, glass, paper, plastic bottles and cans.

Recycling centres take a wider range of items including cardboard and electrical equipment. For more information on recycling facilities in your area, link to http://www.sort-it.org.uk/

Scottish Greens are pledging to back communities across the regions fighting plans for a generation of mass-burn waste incinerators, and to scale-up support for local reuse and recycling initiatives. The Greens are the only party that consistently opposes these incinerators, and Greens are committed to revising the Scottish Government's waste strategy to bring in a moratorium on new facilities. The party argues that burning waste will significantly undermine recycling efforts by creating a built-in demand for waste.

The party will make the case in the next Parliament for a strategy that reduces overall levels of waste at source, conserving valuable resources and creating more jobs in community reuse and repair projects, as well as supporting the local provision of recycling facilities. 

Greens would also pilot a packaging 'deposit and return' scheme, which has resulted in very high recycling rates in countries such as Denmark and has long been pioneered with glass bottles by Barrs in Scotland.