r/Glasgow Tools

I’m also from Ireland and I find that litter here is pretty woeful, I’d actually become accustomed to it but anytime my parents visit they always comment upon it. Even in the rougher and poorer areas of the city I come from litter isn’t half as much of an issue and there’s definitely a cultural acceptance of just dumping stuff on the ground by some people here. I notice another reply here about broken window theory and I do think that is a common cause in certain areas but I also think that the council and their lack of regular bin collection, especially in tenement closes, allows a culture of littering to manifest.

I’ve lived in my current flat for almost 2 years and our blue bins have been emptied about 3 times, luckily most residents are sensible and respectful enough to take their stuff down to the recycling points on the street. However, when a more lazy or disrespectful new resident moves in they often just leave bags of stuff beside or on top of the clearly full bins naturally spilling out all over the place when squirrels or birds get to them, which I find to be infuriating. Definitely we need a mix of education from a very young age and a regular high standard of bin collection from the council and a higher volume of bins around certain poorer areas of the city. To help eradicate the broken window effect isn’t as easy but by filling derelict long-standing gap sites around the city with something decent and nice to look at could go a long way in doing so.