Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what estimate has been made of the number of single use disposable cups that are (a) used each year and (b) sent for recycling by his Department.

According to information provided by our service suppliers, we estimate that the department’s catering services use around 300,000 single use disposable cups per year: 50,000 coffee cups and 250,000 plastic water cups. The Department for International Trade (DIT) is a new department and detailed sustainability data is therefore not available for 2016/17.

Staff and visitors are encouraged to dispose of waste appropriately and use recycling bins wherever possible. Our service supplier offers a cost incentive for using reusable coffee cups, and we are exploring options to reduce our reliance on plastic water cups.

DIT is committed to ensuring its day-to-day operations are environmentally friendly and, as the department develops, we will ensure this is something embedded into our ways of working.