{"id":696,"date":"2026-01-19T09:04:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T10:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mycrochettips.com\/?p=696"},"modified":"2026-02-02T18:52:05","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T18:52:05","slug":"court-throws-out-50m-biffa-lawsuit-over-failed-scottish-drs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mycrochettips.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/19\/court-throws-out-50m-biffa-lawsuit-over-failed-scottish-drs\/","title":{"rendered":"Court throws out \u00a350m Biffa lawsuit over failed Scottish DRS"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-beyondwords-marker=\"caa04717-c9eb-40e9-9627-de91066ef92b\" data-beyondwords-player=\"true\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<h4><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-48912 size-full lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" alt=\"deposit return scheme DRS\" width=\"860\" height=\"516\" data-src=\"https:\/\/mycrochettips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/deposit-scheme-drs-packaging.png\"><\/h4>\n<h4>A court has thrown out Biffa\u2019s \u00a350m lawsuit against the Scottish government over its collapsed deposit return scheme (DRS).<\/h4>\n<p>Scotland originally planned to launch its DRS in 2023, but was forced to scrap plans after the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.circularonline.co.uk\/news\/uk-ministers-reject-snps-drs-request-leaving-scheme-in-doubt\/\">UK Government declined a request for full exclusion<\/a> from the Internal Market Act.<\/p>\n<p>This\u00a0meant that Scotland could not include glass in its DRS. Following the decision,\u00a0the former Scottish Greens co-leader Lorna Slater accused the UK government of sabotage.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>Judge Lord Sandison rejected the firm\u2019s argument and called Biffa\u2019s interpretation of the letter \u2018wishful thinking\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>A Biffa spokesperson said the company are reviewing its position with its legal advisors.<\/p>\n<p>The Scottish government said it could not comment on ongoing legal proceedings.<\/p>\n<p>Biffa was the DRS\u2019s official logistics service provider and had invested over \u00a365 million in preparation for the scheme before it\u00a0was delayed.<\/p>\n<p>Scotland is now set to launch its DRS scheme in October 2027 alongside the other UK nations, without glass as an in-scope material.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.circularonline.co.uk\/news\/wales-announces-phased-approach-to-introducing-glass-into-drs\/\">Wales threatened to scrap its DRS<\/a> if the UK Government didn\u2019t grant an exclusion from the UKIM Act to allow it to include glass in its scheme.<\/p>\n<p>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\u00a0for Wales said this was a transitional measure to manage interoperability with the other UK schemes.<\/p>\n<p>The Welsh Government said a phased approach would avoid the \u2018significant risks and impacts\u2019 of DRSs being implemented within the other nations but not in Wales.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.circularonline.co.uk\/news\/court-throws-out-50m-biffa-lawsuit-over-failed-scottish-drs\/\">Court throws out \u00a350m Biffa lawsuit over failed Scottish DRS<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.circularonline.co.uk\">Circular Online<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 A court has thrown out Biffa\u2019s \u00a350m 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\u00a0UK Government declined a request for full exclusion from the Internal Market Act. This\u00a0meant&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/mycrochettips.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/19\/court-throws-out-50m-biffa-lawsuit-over-failed-scottish-drs\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":678,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycrochettips.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycrochettips.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycrochettips.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycrochettips.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycrochettips.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=696"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mycrochettips.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":698,"href":"https:\/\/mycrochettips.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696\/revisions\/698"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycrochettips.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycrochettips.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycrochettips.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycrochettips.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}