![\"Glasgow](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1_GettyImages-1322273993.jpg\")
Glasgow City Council(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\nEXCLUSIVE: The cost to Glasgow Council of transporting and treating waste in other parts of the UK and overseas comes to nearly \u00a313m.Glasgow City Council(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Domestic waste in Glasgow is being sent thousands of miles away to Spain and Germany<\/a>.<\/p>\n The cash-strapped SNP council has shelled out nearly \u00a313m for the city\u2019s rubbish to be sent to other parts of the UK and abroad<\/a>.<\/p>\n Glasgow Labour councillor Paul Carey, who uncovered the figures, said: \u201cI am astonished and concerned that this waste is leaving Scotland<\/a> to go to other countries. The question is: do we have the equipment to recycle this waste here? If not, why not?<\/p>\n \u201cWe could be creating jobs in Glasgow<\/a> if we had the infrastructure to recycle our own waste.\u201d<\/p>\n It was revealed recently that Scots councils<\/a> would be sending truckloads of waste to England every day once a landfill ban comes in at the end of the year.<\/p>\n The SNP government<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n READ MORE: John Swinney blasts Gaza takeover plan by Israeli government as ‘utterly unacceptable’<\/a>READ MORE: Digital ID cards would be required for every Scot under plan by Labour MP<\/a><\/p>\n Glasgow council has confirmed that some of its waste ends up in Europe as part of the drive to boost recycling<\/a>.<\/p>\n In a freedom of information response<\/a>, town hall chiefs said they had not sent any waste directly to landfill since October 2023.<\/p>\n They added: \u201cDue to the lack of re-processing facilities within the Glasgow City Council <\/a>boundaries, the majority of the other waste managed by the council is sent out with the city for treatment.<\/p>\n \u201cA small quantity of waste may initially be sent to facilities in Glasgow<\/a> for some pre-treatment, for example, mixed papers, but end destinations will be out with the city.\u201d<\/p>\n Paper, cardboard and plastic bottles from the \u201cold blue bins\u201d in the city are initially sent to a contractor in Northern Ireland<\/a>.<\/p>\n Materials are then transported to facilities across the UK to be recycled into new products, as well as to re-processing plants<\/a> in Germany, Netherlands, Belgium and Spain.<\/p>\n Grey bin waste, which covers plastic and metal containers, also ends up in the same EU<\/a> countries for reprocessing.<\/p>\n A mill in England<\/a> is used for paper while the \u201cnext destination\u201d for food and garden waste is listed as York.<\/p>\n The council, led by SNP councillor Susan Aitken<\/a>, said the total bill for sending and treating waste last year was around \u00a312.8m.<\/p>\n Critics say moving waste overseas harms the environment and is a lost opportunity for the domestic economy<\/a>.<\/p>\n Scot Lib Dem net zero spokesperson Sanne Dijkstra-Downie said: “We knew that the SNP<\/a> planned to ship waste to England. Now they’re shipping it off to Germany and Spain too.<\/p>\n “The dirty secret of this SNP Government<\/a> 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.”<\/p>\n Tory MSP Annie Wells said: \u201cIt\u2019s utterly farcical that waste collected in Glasgow<\/a> is ending up in countries like Spain and Germany while SNP Ministers lecture the public about doing their bit for the environment.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is what happens when the SNP<\/a> Government slashes council funding or fails to invest in Scotland\u2019s own waste infrastructure.<\/p>\n![\"Susan](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/0_glasgow-city-council-leader-susan-aitken-has-spoken-of-her-experiences-of-being-hounded-by-opponen.webp\")
SNP’s Susan Aitken(Image: PA Archive\/PA Images)<\/p>\n