Lorna Slater faces renewed calls to resign after the company set-up to oversee a flagship national recycling scheme was forced to call in administrators.
Circularity Scotland was meant to take charge of the deposit return scheme (DRS) but is now on the brink of collapse after the controversial policy was shelved this month.
The not-for-profit organisation was funded by the drinks industry but the Record revealed last week how it faced a funding crisis as businesses pulled out.
Slater, the Scottish Government minister with responsibility for the DRS, today confirmed that administrators had now been appointed by the firm.
She again blamed the firm's demise on the UK Government's insistence that glass be excluded from the DRS.
But opposition parties said she was refusing to take responsibility for the collapse of the firm and called on her to quit as the circular economy minister.
Slater said: "We have learned today that a process is under way is to appoint administrators to CSL [Circularity Scotland Ltd] leaving their staff in extremely difficult position.
"This is an unforgiveable consequence of the UK government's 11th hour intervention which undermined our deposit return scheme, made progress impossible and is now resulting in these jobs being lost."
She added: "We set out what we were going to do, the UK government changed their mind at the last minute."
Slater told MSPs it was her understanding that Circularity Scotland staff had been paid for the work they have done.
The DRS was supposed to launch in March next year having already been delayed from a planned launch date in August.
It would have charged customers a 20p returnable deposit for each single-use drinks container they bought.
But a row between the Scottish and UK Governments over how it would be run eventually saw the scheme axed.
Tory ministers at Westminster have pledged to introduce a UK-wide scheme by late 2025.
Tory MSP Maurice Golden said: "Despite confirming that Circularity Scotland has gone into administration – something that she admitted was a ‘disaster’ for its workforce – Lorna Slater is still refusing to take any responsibility for the collapse of her Deposit Return Scheme.
"Circularity Scotland themselves, like the UK government and other stakeholders, were absolutely clear that the scheme could have remained viable and gone ahead without glass, but instead she pulled the plug.
"The loss of jobs and the eye-watering sums invested – for which Scottish firms should be compensated – are entirely due to her stubborn and petulant decisions. No minister who has failed on such a scale can possibly command any confidence and she must now go."
A UK Government spokesman said: "The operation of Circularity Scotland is a matter for them and the Scottish Government.
"Earlier this year the drinks industry raised concerns about the Scottish Government’s deposit return scheme differing from plans in the rest of the UK.
"The UK Government listened and worked at pace to accept the Scottish Government’s request for a UK Internal Market (UKIM) exclusion on a temporary and limited basis to ensure the Scottish Government’s scheme could proceed while aligning with planned schemes for the rest of the UK.
"The chief executive of Circularity Scotland was categorical that the scheme remained viable on this basis and that many other successful schemes run without glass.
"But the Scottish Government decided not to proceed and instead further paused the scheme until October 2025. Delaying the Scottish scheme was entirely a decision made by the Scottish Government."
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