The Resource Management Association Scotland (RMAS) says the decision to award the Scottish Government’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) contract to Biffa will lead to job losses across its sector and increase CO2 emissions.
The RMAS is the body that represents Scotland’s SME resource and waste management operators.
In July, the scheme’s operating body Circularity Scotland announced the appointment of Biffa PLC as its sole logistics service provider. The RMAS says Biffa will be responsible for collecting qualifying drinks containers from return points and managing bulking and counting centres where materials will be processed for recycling.
The RMAS has accused Circularity Scotland and Biffa of failing to meet a pledge to explore opportunities to utilise the sector’s existing infrastructure, collection services and networks to operate the DRS.
While we are fully behind the aims and intentions of the DRS, the proposed scheme is badly flawed.
It continues that the decision to appoint a “single, centralised contractor” in Biffa will “decimate” smaller waste operators leading to lost revenues, job cuts and a reduction in customer choice for waste collection services, especially in remote, rural and island communities.
The RMAS has also raised concerns that the move could result in an increase in long-haul collections creating higher carbon emissions.
The group is now calling for the DRS to be realigned and rolled out in tandem with schemes being planned in England and Northern Ireland which are proposing to exempt glass from collections. The RMAS also says the scheme could be digitised to help lower carbon emissions and alleviate many of the financial and administrative concerns being raised by smaller retailers.
Circularity Scotland says Biffa’s appointment followed robust bidding process
In response, Circularity Scotland told Circular Online: “Biffa was appointed as the official logistics partner for the DRS in Scotland after a full and robust bidding process, which included smaller Scottish-based operators. Biffa was selected as a result of its unparalleled expertise in supporting large-scale and complex recycling schemes across the world.
“Our agreement with Biffa has already seen them invest more than £80m in Scotland to create the infrastructure needed to deliver the scheme and will create more than 500 jobs across the country.”
Biffa was appointed as the official logistics partner for the DRS in Scotland after a full and robust bidding process.
“We are committed to delivering a DRS that works as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible and are actively working with recycling, waste and logistics providers across Scotland to identify opportunities to work in partnership and utilise existing collection arrangements.
“We are also in regular contact with waste management teams from all local authorities in Scotland about synergies with their recycling networks. As well as minimising costs, this will help to ensure that emissions from collection vehicles are kept as low as possible.
“The DRS is being introduced to boost Scotland’s recycling rates and will operate alongside existing Scottish waste and recycling activity. Today’s announcement by the Marine Conservation Society of the presence of litter in 95% of volunteer surveys of beaches in Scotland is yet more compelling evidence of why the Deposit Return Scheme must go ahead without delay.
“The scheme will prevent billions of drinks containers every year from ending up as waste, but clearly this is only one element of the materials that make up household and business waste in Scotland and DRS will not affect collection of these materials.”
Biffa’s response
A Biffa spokesperson told Circular Online: “Our logistics contract for DRS includes an obligation to reduce carbon activity for the delivery of the service. The wider scheme also aims to ensure that at least 90% of recyclable drinks containers are captured and prevented from becoming waste. That’s more than two billion bottles and cans every year.
“For PET plastic drinks containers alone, the scheme is designed to recycle an extra 355,000 tonnes against ‘business as usual’ between 2024 and 2049, a carbon saving of 761,000 tonnes of CO2e. For aluminium drinks containers, an extra 184,000 tonnes is set to be recycled over the same period, a carbon saving of 1.8 million tonnes of CO2e.”
Our logistics contract for DRS includes an obligation to reduce carbon activity for the delivery of the service.
The spokesperson highlighted that Biffa employ more than 10,000 people in the UK, including 300 in Scotland, and recruitment is underway for an additional 500 people to work on the DRS. They also contend the organisation is “actively engaged” with several small and medium organisations in Scotland to help deliver parts of the scheme.
Biffa is also investing £80million in infrastructure, including opening processing centres in Motherwell, Aberdeen, Thurso, Inverness, Dundee and Grangemouth to count, sort and bale the plastic, glass and aluminium drinks containers collected through the scheme, the spokesperson told Circular Online, and work has already started on most of these sites and several counting machines have already been delivered.
Support from MSPs
The RMAS says a cross-party group of MSPs is backing the call for a rethink on the single contract approach in addition to adopting an evidence-based approach to the launch of the scheme.
Drew Murdoch, Chair of the RMAS, commented: “While we are fully behind the aims and intentions of the DRS, the proposed scheme is badly flawed.
“The decision to appoint a single contractor gives an unfair market advantage to one large operator. This goes against assurances we were given by Circularity Scotland and Biffa that opportunities to utilise existing infrastructure and collection services would be fully explored.
The decision to appoint a single contractor gives an unfair market advantage to one large operator.
“Instead, we are faced with the situation that, from August, hospitality businesses currently serviced by multiple operators across the Scottish waste management sector will have no alternative but to accept Biffa’s services for the collection of all qualifying drinks containers.
“The Scottish Government has so far missed an opportunity to engage with our sector, but we are still keen to support the design of a more appropriate scheme which optimises existing recycling infrastructure as well as related logistics and collections networks.”
