Cleansing workers have been met with mountains of waste in streets across Glasgow after the Christmas and New Year holidays.

Pictures shown to the Glasgow Times, for the first week of 2024, show bins overflowing, back courts littered with rubbish and bin storage areas rammed full.

In addition to the two public holidays with no collections, households generate more waste with extra food consumed and packaging waste from presents.

READ NEXT:Meet the man on a mission to bring people back to Glasgow's East End

The photographs taken in various areas around the city show the build-up and the extra material discarded that has been waiting to be picked up.

Glasgow Times: cleansing bins

Tenement properties are worst affected with households sharing bins.

Glasgow Times: cleansing bins

Pictures from back courts and bin storage areas in Govan, Maryhill, Partick, Possilpark and Summerston, show the scale of the problem.

Public recycling areas around the city are also overflowing as the large bins have been unable to contain all the waste.

Glasgow Times: cleansing bins

The pictures show black bags piled high with bins already full, cardboard boxes left beside bin bags and food waste spilled out into the open.

READ NEXT:Silverburn reveals new leisure attraction to open in 2024

No pick-ups took place on Christmas Day and Boxing Day and again on January 1 and 2.

The public was advised by the council of the new dates and it appears so much more waste has been generated.

Chis Mitchell, GMB cleansing convenor, said workers face a big problem after Christmas.

Glasgow Times:

He said: “It puts a big strain on the workers. It means extra manual handling, double in some cases.

Some of this has been lying for weeks. It means there is more chance of injury, there’s sharps, glass and food waste lying so long it is putrid, which also attracts rats even more than usual.

“We completely understand there is more rubbish thrown out and we are trying to get to it as quickly as we can.”

A spokesperson, for Glasgow City Council, said: “Following the festive period, there are currently delays to household bin collections across the city.

“The public holidays at Christmas and New Year always have an impact on the refuse collection service and there is also a build-up of additional waste produced over the holiday.

“The combination of sickness and annual leave within our teams along with weather events such as flooding and snow can also cause disruption to collections.

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

“To assist their efforts, staff have been offered overtime, colleagues from other parts of the service have been redeployed temporarily and, where appropriate, agency staff brought in.

“We are sorry for any inconvenience caused by any delay in uplifting household waste."

The council also said that people can help by taking action to ease the burden on cleansing crews.

The spokesperson continued: “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.”