By Paul Brown, Managing Director, Recycling and Integrated Assets, Viridor

ENVIRONMENT Secretary Roseanna Cunningham’s announcement last month outlining Scotland’s deposit return scheme was seen as a milestone in the development of a circular economy in Scotland.

As a leading recycling and low-carbon energy company, Viridor welcomes these ambitions to increase recycling and the continuing commitment ministers are showing to achieving a circular economy. Instead of the traditional economic model of “take, make, waste”, this would instead allow the return of valuable recycling resources to Scotland’s economy while cutting carbon.

Viridor is committed to working in partnership with the Scottish Government on its circular economy ambitions. Our investment of £477 million over the past five years in projects north of the border stands as testament to this. Major new facilities are diverting waste from landfill in Glasgow and East Lothian, and our state-of-the-art glass recycling facility in North Lanarkshire is supplying the Scotch whisky and bottling sectors.

We stand ready to commit further funding to significant new projects if future conditions prove appropriate. For example, last month we announced plans to develop a new plastics recycling plant near Bristol. This £65m facility will see the circular economy in action. It will produce more than 60,000 tonnes of recycled plastics each year all while being powered by energy generated from non-recyclable waste. There is no reason why a similar plastics facility could not be built here in Scotland to reprocess material collected through the deposit return scheme.

However, we are concerned that opportunities to achieve Scotland’s circular economy ambitions, and retain recycling resources within Scotland, could be lost under deposit return as it currently stands, which risks seeing this material going to export. The Scottish deposit return business case suggests the eventual scheme administrator will be free to sell recyclate to the highest bidder. In practice, dumping plastic on the market has been tried in other countries and it has led to it being shipped overseas. Indeed, the Scottish Government’s own report acknowledges that this approach “does not support achievement of [the] circular economy”.

Instead, we would like to see the Scottish Government introduce a scheme with an administrator who is tasked with ensuring this valuable resource is retained by Scotland for reprocessing and reintroduction into the economy. This would secure the steady stream of material necessary to make further significant investments in plastics and glass recycling viable.

Companies like Viridor, and the wider recycling and waste management sector, have a crucial role to play in establishing Scotland’s circular economy. Our industry has the experience necessary to ensure the success of deposit return, yet are not involved in important groups like the Deposit Return Implementation Advisory Group, which has been tasked with guiding the scheme’s implementation. This risks the creation of an inefficient system that does not further Scotland’s circular economy ambitions.

We look forward to engaging with the Scottish Government, officials, and MSPs as regulations for deposit return are laid at Holyrood later this summer. Ensuring its success is crucial to our industry and Scotland’s circular economy. We hope our voice can be heard and listened to.