Angry Glasgow residents claim bins went 'unemptied' over festive period

Disgruntled Glasgow residents who claim their bins weren’t emptied over the festive period say the amount of rubbish dumped onto the street was “disgusting”.

People living in the South Side of Glasgow, namely Priesthill and Carnwadric, say they even noticed wildlife ripping open discarded black bin bags and rubbish spilling out of them.

Last week the GMB raised concerns that the city was facing a public and environmental health crisis as a result of overflowing recycling bins.

Julie Cairns, who lives on Stanalane Street, claims that her bins and those on nearby roads hadn’t been emptied for seven weeks.

Closes In Stanalane St, Carnwadric. LDRS

Ms Cairns said: “Myself and other neighbours contacted the council about this as our general bins normally get emptied weekly and recycling waste fortnightly.

“I had to put my recycling at my door as I had nowhere to put it. The unemptied bins outside stank – it was absolutely disgusting.

“The back courts are disgusting and we can’t let the kids out to play with their bikes or other toys.”

Meanwhile Scott Edwards, of Cleeves Quadrant in Priesthill, said his bins were left over Christmas for three weeks.

Mr Edwards said: “There have been bags of food rubbish just dumped into the street – it’s disgusting. The bins have now been emptied.

“We have about 25 houses on our cul-de-sac and we are supposed to get two bin collections a week but they didn’t come for about three weeks before Christmas.

“All through Christmas the bins were piled with rubbish. The recycling bin also ended up full of rubbish which meant all the bins were completely full.

“There were bags of rubbish inside the bin shed and outside the bin shed. You can imagine all the cardboard boxes that took up a lot of space as well.

“There were egg cartons with broken eggs and something had been in it trying to eat the rotten food.

“It was horrible. There was one night I went out with my bins and all I was doing was piling my rubbish on top of other bin bags.

“There was goo in the bin shed which got through my shoe. It was disgusting.”

Glasgow City Council has since confirmed it collected the accumulating waste in Priesthill and Carnwadric over the weekend, and apologised for any issues collection delays have caused residents.

A spokesman for the council said: “There are currently delays to household bin collections across the city following the festive holidays and we are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

“The excess waste that was highlighted in Priesthill and Carnwadric was cleared over the weekend just past.

“Annual leave and sickness among our teams along with weather events such as flooding and snow have also added to the disruption to collections.

“We are working hard to ensure all collections return to their normal schedule as soon as possible.

“To support the effort to clear the build-up of waste, staff have been offered overtime, colleagues from other parts of the service have been redeployed temporarily and, where appropriate, agency staff brought in.

“A wide range of household waste can be taken to one of our four household waste recycling centres and special drop-off points for Christmas trees are available up until January 31.

“Residents can assist collection teams by taking care when disposing of broken glass or sharp objects, double-bagging waste where possible and ensuring the knot in the bin bag is facing upwards.

“All of these steps will help ensure staff can remove waste as quickly and as safely as possible.

“Residents who put their bins out on the pavement for collection should continue to do so as scheduled.”