FED NEWS Circularity Scotland collapse a ‘disaster’

by Jack Courtez jack.courtez@newtrade.co.uk

The company responsible for running Scotland’s axed deposit return scheme (DRS), Circularity Scotland, entered administration last week after drinks companies refused to prop up the company.

On 20 June, Circularity Scotland ceased trading – five days after the British Soft Drinks Association (BSDA), British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA) and Scottish Retail Consortium (SCRC) announced they would provide no further support to the company.

The collapse was described as a “disaster” for the company’s 60 staff by the minister responsible for DRS in Scotland, Lorna Slater, who herself faced job uncertainty last week.

On the same day as the company’s collapse, Slater survived a no confidence vote in the Scottish Parliament by a margin of just 13 votes.

The end of Circularity Scotland could dent the chances of Scottish

Yorkshire

Fed making changes

retailers acting as a pilot study for the UK-wide DRS, ahead of its launch in October 2025.

RN understands from industry sources the idea of a pilot in Scotland had been gaining momentum following a Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) meeting between ministers and industry earlier this month.

However, the plan was based on Scotland already having the infrastructure in place to run the pilot, which would have probably included Circularity Scotland.

The Fed’s national vice-president Mo Razzaq expressed “enormous sympathy” for staff at Circularity Scotland and called on the Scottish government to use its experience to inform a UK-wide deposit return scheme.

He said: “Looking to the future, we feel there is a compelling case for one organisation to run a bottle and can return scheme for the whole of the UK.

“If each of the four nations has its own organisation, the system is likely to be more complex, bureaucratic and expensive for retailers, drinks producers and consumers.

All of this will get in the way of our shared objective of a successful deposit return scheme curbing litter and waste of the planet’s resources.

“We believe it would also be helpful now for Scotland to review the strengths and weaknesses in the planning for its own deposit system so that we can help shape the creation of a stronger system for the UK.

“More research into the successful launch of systems in other countries around the world, would also help inform our thinking.”

Until an administrator’s report is published, the complete scale of the collapse is unclear.

A joint statement from the BSDA, BBPA and SRC said their members had invested “tens of millions of pounds”.

The Scottish-government-owned Scottish National Investment Bank is expected to lose £4.5m of the £9m it loaned to Circularity Scotland.