Progress Made by Public Service on Eliminating Single-use Items in Food Catering for Their Events

Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang asked the Minister for Sustainability and the Environment (a) whether she can provide an update on the progress that the Public Service has made in eliminating single-use items from their catering events; and (b) what is the timeline for completely eliminating single-use items from all Public Service catering events.

The Senior Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Sustainability and the Environment (Mr Baey Yam Keng) (for the Minister for Sustainability and the Environment): Mr Speaker, the public sector is committed to reducing its waste. Under GreenGov.SG, the public sector has set a target to reduce the amount of waste disposed of by 30% by 2030, compared to 2022 levels. To meet this target, we are focusing on waste reductions, as well as recycling measures. These include requiring public sector buildings with food and beverage establishments to segregate their food waste for treatment, as well as not providing bottled or packaged water for meetings.

Apart from these measures, we also recognise that public sector events are key touchpoints and bringing reusables or eliminating single-use items from catering events are important markers for behaviour change. As such, public agencies are encouraged to follow the practices in the Best Practice Guide for Organising Environmentally Friendly Events, unless event conditions make some practices unfeasible. The list of practices includes requesting participants to bring their own reusable cups, cutlery and containers, and to provide recycling bins if bottled water must be provided.

Understandably, it remains a challenge to completely eliminate single-use items from all Public Service catering events, especially if the venues do not have adequate washing facilities. We will continue to regularly review our strategies and guidelines, including to reduce single-use items, to further advance the public sector's waste reduction measures.

Thank you, Sir. I thank the Senior Parliamentary Secretary for the reply. Could I just check whether we have a target date where we will completely eliminate the use of disposables at our events or at our meetings? Second, could I also ask whether we are actually tracking the exact number of disposables that are being used at events organised for or by the Public Service, and also, at our meetings?

And I ask this, hopefully, with some sense of urgency, because last week, I was at a Ministry's office for an event and disposable cups were still being used. And I think, as we preach so much about going zero-waste, we really should practise what we preach. And I should thank Speaker as well, for greening Parliament, where we now no longer use disposable cups here. So, it is possible.

I thank the Member for pushing for reducing waste and, indeed, our ambition is to do that. But I would like to further clarify that our priority is on implementing impactful moves that will reduce waste and increase recycling at these events. Because complete elimination of single-use items is not possible at all catering events, as it depends on the venue, operational considerations and limitations.

So, we will take a holistic approach, a measured approach in our push for change and contextualise ideas that are suited to our local waste management system.

If the Member can share with me, offline, which event he went to that offered those cups, we can nudge our sister agency or Ministry to understand the concerns and constraints.