| answer text |
<p>On increasing recycling and re-use, Parliament’s Environment Team works in close
partnership with its waste contractor to respond to new and emerging opportunities
to recycle and recover waste. The waste contract includes a requirement for driving
continuous improvements in Parliament’s recycling performance.</p><p>Parliament achieved
a recycling rate of 59% in 2018–19, with a long-term target to recycle 75% of waste
(by weight) by 2020–21.</p><p>On reducing single-use avoidable plastics, in May 2018
Parliament announced a comprehensive range of initiatives to drastically reduce its
consumption of single-use avoidable plastics:</p><ul><li>Eliminate plastic bottled
water</li><li>Eliminate condiment sachets (through substitution)</li><li>Eliminate
plastic-lined hot drinks cups, alongside introduction of a ‘latte levy’</li><li>Sell
and incentivise the use of re-usable ‘keep cups’</li><li>Substitute disposable catering
take-away items with compostable alternatives, alongside the introduction of a compostable
waste stream</li><li>Substitute plastic tumblers with compostable alternatives</li><li>Substitute
plastic carrier bags with paper ones</li><li>Implement a ‘green stationery’ catalogue</li><li>Pilot
a re-usable delivery container scheme at the Offsite Consolidation Centre</li><li>Produce
procedures for incorporating the environmental impact of packaging waste into the
weighting of relevant procurement exercises</li></ul><p><br>Except for the delivery
container pilot scheme, for which a feasibility study has been completed, all single-use
plastic initiatives have been fully implemented.</p>
|
|
