Friday August 7th 2026
Glasgow City Chambers
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Catherine Hunter
Questions over how Glasgow City Council will maximise its recycling targets has been raised by a local councillor.
It comes as members of the Contracts and Property committee approved a contract for the collection, re-use, recycling and treatment of bulk waste services to the Dow Group Limited and J. & M. Murdoch & Son Limited yesterday.
During the meeting councillor Stephen Curran asked how the council, which spends £11.2 million per year on the providing recycling and bulk waste services, planned to maximise its recycling targets.
In 2024 the local authority referred around 55,000 tonnes of bulk waste for treatment.
The duration of the new contract is 24 months and will run from August 17, 2026 to August 16, 2028, with two additional extension options of up to 12 months each.
Councillor Stephen Curran said: “I have a question around maximising the target of recycling and moving the waste management up the waste hierarchy.
“We obviously can’t factor in exactly what the tonnage will consist of, but have we got some sort of target or expectation about what we want to see happening with it, I suppose based on previous years and hoping that is similar to future years.”
A council officer confirmed that they “hadn’t stipulated maximum or minimum recycling rates”.
They said: “The quality of the material can be quite variable. Some of it can be quite seasonal as well.
“Also with new technologies and also emerging markets, we haven’t specified that they must reach a certain recycling target rate.
“We will be emphasising the need to move waste up the hierarchy as well and also engage with the wider market on what is available for recycling.”
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