Zero Waste Scotland has highlighted the amount of Santa suits that are binned immediately after the charity event

An annual Santa Dash has been criticised over its environmental impact.

The event, which took place on Sunday (9 December), is held by Glasgow City Council and has raised more than £250,000 for various charities over the last 12 years.

However the dash has faced criticism after many participants discarded their Santa suits at the end of the event.

The amount of waste created by the event has been highlighted by Zero Waste Scotland.

A spokesperson said: "The Santa Dash is a fantastic event for a great cause. But while Christmas is a wonderful time of year, it can also be a very wasteful period.

"We appreciate that after running 5k people are keen to get out of their running gear but that shouldn't mean throwing your Santa suit in the bin.”

The organisation has said it hopes participants reuse their suits where possible, or recycle them.

A spokesman for Glasgow City Council said the council would consider how to reduce the event's environmental impact in future years.

He said: "It was unfortunate the way that a minority of people discarded their Santa suits after the events but all of these suits were collected quickly and then disposed of appropriately.

"But we are always keen to reduce the environmental impact of our events where ever possible and will look at what can done differently with the Santa Dash in future.

"This year we ended the practice of handing out free water to Santa Dash participants, which reduced our use of plastic bottles by 95%.

"Many participants already reuse or provide their own costumes and anyone wearing a Santa suit was guaranteed free bus travel, which helped to reduce car traffic in the city centre."

The 5km fun run saw around 5,000 people take part this year to raise funds for the Beatson Cancer Charity.