Question

To ask the right hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington, representing the House of Commons Commission, what steps the Commission is taking to comply with the Waste Electric and Electronic Equipment Regulations and to reduce the wastage by the House of goods covered by those regulations.

There is a wide range of Waste Electric and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) disposed of from the Parliamentary Estate. These include, but are not limited to IT wastes (computers, display screens, iPads, printers etc.), ‘white goods’ (desk fans, mini fridges, kettles etc.) and maintenance-based waste (fluorescent tubes, electrical fittings, emergency system batteries, catering fridges etc.), and includes hazardous and non-hazardous items.

A licensed contractor, Bywater Ltd, are engaged to dispose of end of life or non-operational white goods and maintenance WEEE. They use two specialist subcontractors who operate Approved Authorised Treatment Facilities (AATF) to ensure that WEEE waste is processed to the highest standards of licensing available from the Environment Agency. Non-hazardous WEEE is processed by Total Waste Management Ltd in Basildon, Essex, and hazardous WEEE is processed by Electrical Waste Recycling Group Ltd in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire.

For IT WEEE, Parliamentary Digital Services use the services of a fully licensed contractor, RDC, who likewise operate an AATF for those IT items which are at end of life or non-operational. For items that can be re-used once all data has been erased (to certified security standards), RDC operates a remarketing service aimed at maximising the re-use of IT equipment no longer required by Parliament.

Parliament is currently in the process of developing an electrical heater policy to reduce usage of these across the Estate. One associated benefit of this policy will be a reduction in electrical heaters being disposed of in our white goods WEEE waste stream.