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City daily urges council rethink on ‘disaster’ waste scheme

A city daily has urged council chiefs to rethink a commercial waste scheme branded a “health and safety disaster” by traders.

The Glasgow Evening Time’s Waste to Go campaign is called on Glasgow City Council to devise a better scheme which keeps rubbish off the streets, but also works for businesses.

The council’s strategy is designed to take commercial waste bins off the streets and make the city centre more appealing for tourists and visitors, but traders have told the Evening Times they have been forced to break health and safety rules to take contaminated rubbish back into their buildings and carry bags of waste through busy restaurants during service.

Others claim they have been left with no choice but to spend thousands on private refuse collections to fulfill their responsibility to the city.

The Evening Times splashed on the campaign’s launch on Friday.

Glasgow waste

Deputy editor Henry Ainslie told HTFP: “Everybody is behind the drive to make Glasgow a cleaner place to live and work, but after eight weeks of businesses across the city trying to comply, it’s already clear the new commercial waste strategy isn’t contributing to that cause.

“We’ve heard from the owners of countless businesses of all sizes who are furious with the new rules, and as a title that fights for the issues that matter to Glasgow, the Evening Times is calling on the city council to go back to the drawing board and come up with a strategy that works for the city.

“We know Glasgow can do better than this, and the feedback we’ve received from business owners and members of the public since launching Waste to Go last week suggests everybody in the city feels the same.”

A spokesman for Glasgow City Council, said: “The commercial waste project has been a great success in the city centre, removing 1,800 bulky waste bins from the area, improving the environment and making streets more accessible for all.

“Its success and popularity with businesses and residents led to the roll-out of the scheme across the city, beginning in early April with the whole of Glasgow to be covered by March next year.

“As with any such project, occasional teething problems tend to happen, and we are working with all the commercial waste contractors to ensure operations work as smoothly as possible.

“We are confident that this project will leave Glasgow a cleaner, greener and safer place.”