Day 009 - 08 Jul 94 - Page 64


     
     1
         Q.   Can you explain what that refers to, what was that
     2        statute?
              A.  Portland drafted local law that would ban the use of
     3        polystyrene foam packaging in their community.
 
     4   Q.   Did McDonald's, therefore, comply with that statute?
              A.  Yes.
     5
         MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What was the jurisdiction of that authority,
     6        the City of Portland?
              A.  City of Portland, Oregon.
     7
         MR. MORRIS:  McDonald's opposed that statute, correct?
     8        A.  Yes.
 
     9   Q.   Unsuccessfully?
              A.  Yes.  They enacted the legislation.
    10
         Q.   But complied with it?
    11        A.  Then we complied with it.
 
    12   Q.   Are there any other authorities that did the same thing?
              A.  There were a couple of small communities, probably
    13        five small communities, very small communities, that
              banned the use of polystyrene packaging.  The biggest
    14        community to ban polystyrene was Suffel County in New
              York.  Suffel County is a huge county that has a couple of
    15        million people in it.  They had drafted legislation to ban
              polystyrene in 1988.
    16
              Just recently it went through a whole serious of debates
    17        as to whether they should really enforce that law or not
              and as recently as a couple of months based on a study
    18        that a independent university did in New York, they
              finally did an environmental impact analyses of the law
    19        that they crafted.
 
    20        When they did the environmental assessment, the findings
              of that study were that the law they passed in Suffel
    21        County would do nothing to improve the environmental
              aspects of Suffel County.  Therefore, the conclusion of
    22        the County legislators was that they took away the law for
              not enforcing it.
    23
         Q.   Why?  What was your understanding of why they banned the
    24        styrofoam?
              A.  Why there was people wanting to ban it back in 1989?
    25        Is that a question?
  
    26   Q.   Yes. 
              A.  Symbolism.  Polystyrene foam symbolised the whole 
    27        solid waste crisis and what happened, in reality, is after
              the facts came out, instead of everybody rushing to ban
    28        polystyrene, once all the facts came out from 1989
              through, let us say, 1991, people realised that was not a
    29        real solution to the solid waste issue.  Therefore, any
              other initiatives to ban polystyrene all disappeared.
    30
              As we speak today, there has been virtually no activity in

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