A court has thrown out Biffa’s £50m lawsuit against the Scottish government over its collapsed deposit return scheme (DRS).
Scotland originally planned to launch its DRS in 2023, but was forced to scrap plans after the UK Government declined a request for full exclusion from the Internal Market Act.
This meant that Scotland could not include glass in its DRS. Following the decision, the former Scottish Greens co-leader Lorna Slater accused the UK government of sabotage.
Waste management company Biffa claimed a letter from Slater in 2022 was akin to a guarantee that the DRS would go ahead and prompted them to invest millions in the scheme.
Judge Lord Sandison rejected the firm’s argument and called Biffa’s interpretation of the letter ‘wishful thinking’.
A Biffa spokesperson said the company are reviewing its position with its legal advisors.
The Scottish government said it could not comment on ongoing legal proceedings.
Biffa was the DRS’s official logistics service provider and had invested over £65 million in preparation for the scheme before it was delayed.
Scotland is now set to launch its DRS scheme in October 2027 alongside the other UK nations, without glass as an in-scope material.
Last year, Wales threatened to scrap its DRS if the UK Government didn’t grant an exclusion from the UKIM Act to allow it to include glass in its scheme.
Wales plans to include glass as an in-scope material in its DRS at launch without charging a deposit on any glass containers. In a statement, the Deputy First Minister for Wales said this was a transitional measure to manage interoperability with the other UK schemes.
The Welsh Government said a phased approach would avoid the ‘significant risks and impacts’ of DRSs being implemented within the other nations but not in Wales.