Firm who’ll run SNP’s bottle plan were f ined £1.5m... for illegally dumping waste abroad
A COMPANY handed a key role in the Scottish Government’s recycling scheme was fined a record £1.5 million for breaching environmental law.
Waste management giant Biffa has been handed a ten-year, multi-million pound contract to process used bottles and cans as part of the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) being masterminded by the SNPGreen coalition.
Yet The Scottish Mail on Sunday can disclose the American-owned firm was slapped with the fine – the highest penalty ever imposed by an English court – for illegally shipping 1,000 tons of hazardous waste from the UK to Indonesia and India. A judge described the company’s action as ‘reckless, bordering on the deliberate’. It
‘Lorna Slater must answer if she signed off this contract’
was the second time Biffa had been prosecuted for major environmental breaches in as many years.
Last night critics said the revelation was yet another blow to the DRS, which is masterminded by Scottish Greens Minister Lorna Slater.
Conservative MSP Maurice Golden said: ‘These latest revelations pour further misery on the SNP-Green’s hapless handling of the Deposit Return Scheme.
‘The tendering process was already under question and Lorna Slater must answer if she signed off this contract.
‘The Scottish Government should explain why their scheme seems designed to favour multinational companies with dubious practices over Scottish companies, many of whom adhere to the highest environmental standards – and why they were not allowed to bid for the contract, and now face economic oblivion.’
The scheme is to be introduced in August. Every drinks container – from a plastic water bottle to a beer can – will carry a 20p surcharge which can only be refunded when it is returned, undamaged, to an authorised collection point.
The DRS will be run by not-forprofit company Circularity Scotland, which attracted criticism when it was disclosed that chief executive David Harris will be paid £300,000 a year. Circularity Scotland has handed responsibility for uplifting and processing the returned cans and bottles to Biffa.
The company will transfer containers from return points to new recycling centres in Portlethen, near Aberdeen, and Motherwell.
In 2021 Biffa was convicted of illegally exporting, among other items, 50,000 tins, 40,000 plastic bags, 3,000 nappies and quantities of condoms. Investigators from the UK’s Environment Agency who uncovered the rogue shipment described ‘a strong putrid’ smell and an ‘acidic aroma’.
On top of the record £1.5 million fine, the firm was told to pay costs of £153,827 and handed a proceeds of crime order for £38,388.
In September 2019, Biffa was fined £350,000 plus costs of £240,000 and received another proceeds of crime order of £9,912 for sending contaminated household waste to China in 2015.
Last night Biffa insisted it was a ‘fit and proper’ organisation to run Scotland’s recycling scheme.
A spokesman said: ‘We’ve come a very long way over the last four years, and we continue to satisfy the regulators that we remain a fit and proper organisation to hold the relevant permits and licences needed to carry out our vital waste and recycling activities.’
A spokesman for Circularity Scotland said: ‘Biffa was appointed as the official logistics provider for the Deposit Return Scheme in Scotland following a robust bidding process and as a result of their unparalleled expertise in supporting large scale and complex recycling schemes across the world.’
The Scottish Government said decisions about the awarding of DRS contracts were a matter for Circularity Scotland.