A waste management firm will today make its case for £200 million of compensation over a failed recycling scheme.

Two days of legal debate will begin today over Biffa’s claim against the Scottish Goverment for £55m it lost when the deposit return scheme was terminated. The remaining sum is largely an estimate of lost profit.

The DRS was supposed to boost recycling by charging a 20p deposit on every drinks container, which would be refunded through an empties return system.

Biffa was appointed as logistics partner to collect all the recycled containers across Scotland on a 10-year deal.

The scheme was meant to go live in 2023, but the UK government refused to grant an exemption to the Internal Market Act unless a UK-wide approach which excluded glass was adopted. That meant Scottish Ministers could not let it go ahead.

The firm which was due to manage it – Circularity Scotland – later went into administration, with Biffa Waste Services one of its largest creditors.