More than a thousand bin hubs with rat traps to be installed across Glasgow

Up to 1,200 new bin hubs — which will include rat traps — are to be rolled out across Glasgow after a contract worth almost £2.5m was approved.

Glasgow City Council has been trialling the hubs, which take bins out of back courts and put them on the street, in three parts of the city, and officials say the quality of recycling has improved.

In a report, they added the new on-streets hubs will support “waste and recycling servicing from challenging flatted properties across the city” following the success of a pilot.

Councillors were told areas in the south-west of the city, such as Govan, Cardonald and Ibrox, are currently being considered as locations for the new hubs.

Trials have taken place in Pollokshields, Haghill and Finnieston.

Street furniture firm Broxap has been awarded the contract, and it is thought new hubs could be on the streets “from around April/May”.

A budget of £4.6m had been set for the supply and delivery of the bin hubs, but the successful tender valued the work at £2.48m.

It covers the purchase of up to 1,200 hubs on “a supply and delivery basis, with an option to install when required.” Hubs will house up to four galvanised steel four-wheeled 1280-litre bins and one food waste bin.

With a saving of just over £2.3m, Cllr Ruairi Kelly, SNP, asked whether there had been assurances over the quality of the hubs.

An official said there had been “significant due diligence” and the supplier had contracts with other councils. A sample of the items will be reviewed.

Cllr Dan Hutchison, Greens, said the trials had been “ an interesting experience”. “If I’m honest, a lot of the apprehension beforehand has been settled, but there are a couple of things that have certainly been outstanding.”

He said initially, rat traps hadn’t been put in bins, adding: “There’s no foot opening, so people who are smaller or disabled can’t actually get their bins in properly. The hole in the top of the bins is a bit small.”

An official said a review of areas in the south west of the city is ongoing. He added: “The hubs do have bait boxes now, they are included in the new hubs we’ve purchased.

“We are still in discussion with the bin manufacturer in terms of the apertures.”

Cllr Stephen Docherty, Labour, asked how the council had managed uplifts during the pilot and whether people were “dumping stuff beside the bin hubs”.

The official said: “The quality of recycling we are getting from the bin hubs is a lot better than the quality that we get through the backcourts, we see a lot of contamination through the backcourts.

“We are still analysing that data at the moment which will help inform the roll-out in the rest of the city. I think providing the apertures for the recycling bins, that’s certainly helped us capture better quality of recycling.”

He said cleansing squads go out frequently to collect any waste dumped beside the hubs but that was a “minor” problem at hotspots in “higher footfall areas”.