Single use catering items (2022)

Response

Thank you for your request for information as copied below. You asked the House of Commons four questions relating to the use and disposal of Vegware products across the parliamentary estate. Given the nature of the information you have requested, we have processed your request under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIRs). More information on the regulations can be found on the Information Commissioner’s Office website.

Additionally, please note that the parliamentary estate is occupied by both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, which are two separate public authorities in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Our response only covers recorded information held by the House of Commons. If you wish to request information held by the House of Lords, you should contact them directly at FOILORDS@parliament.uk.

1) Do you hold information on the number of Vegware products used?
and
2) If so, are you able to provide figures on how much is used (even if just by how much is ordered), either by weight or numbers of items? Ideally it would be good to know how much has been used in each calendar year since it was introduced, but if you have alternative timescales please can you provide that?

Some information is held by the House of Commons regarding this part of your request. The House does not hold the amount of Vegware products used on an annual basis, however, we do hold information on purchases of Vegware products from 2018 to the date of your request, which are held in cases and units. Units include (but are not limited to) individual cultery, cups, lids, food boxes and bags purchased, however please note that we do not hold an breakdown of the type of items purchased and it is not possible to disaggregate this.

• Purchases of Vegware products from 2018 to the date of your request (Table 1)

3) Do you hold information on how the Vegware products are disposed of?
and
4) My understanding is that Vegware advises industrial composting of its products. Do you hold figures on how much of the Vegware used/supplied across the parliamentary estate is sent for industrial composting? Or can you provide any information on how it is disposed of/what method of disposable?

Some information is held by the House of Commons regarding your request. Compostable food and drinks disposables, including Vegware products, are disposed of in dedicated compostable and food bins located across the parliamentary estate. These are then emptied and contents taken for processing at an in-vessel composting facility, and we hold figures on the total amount of compostable and food waste which has been sent to this facility. Please note however that we do not have a breakdown of this by Vegware products, nor any other breakdowns of this information, as this is neither recorded by us nor can it be disaggregated from our records either.

It may help you to know however that we do hold the total amount of compostable and food waste (in kilograms) which has been sent to this facility from 2019 onwards (Table2)