Day 009 - 08 Jul 94 - Page 39
1 and some of it is likely to end up in the sea, in lakes,
in the wild?
2 A. It disturbs me greatly when I see polystyrene, any of
our packaging, or anybody else's waste, either on the
3 streets or in the oceans, I think it is absolutely
deplorable that people do that both on land and on sea.
4
Q. But why do you continue to use foam for your breakfast
5 materials?
A. We see it as the best package alternative available at
6 this point in time from all perspectives, including the
environment.
7
Q. You cannot be looking at it from an environmental
8 perspective or you would stop using it?
A. No, we have looked at it in depth from an
9 environmental perspective.
10 Q. I think you told us before that when you switched to
sandwich wraps, the reason for that was they were found to
11 be environmentally preferable to foam?
A. That is what we found absolutely correct, but to
12 switch breakfast is a totally different issue. When we
made the switch, one thing we did not explain in detail is
13 that we did switch some of our breakfast packaging to
paper wraps. That which can be put in wraps, we are
14 wrapping. So, for instance, an egg McMuffin: It used to
come in a polystyrene foam container in the United
15 States. Today that is a hand held sandwich that we do put
into our new wraps. Scrambled eggs with a hash brown is
16 something we cannot put in a wrap. We use a breakfast
tray and a lid and that is made with polystyrene foam.
17
Q. You think it is more important to serve your scrambled
18 eggs and hash browns than it is that this packaging might
be having a detrimental effect on the environment?
19 A. No, that is not how I feel. What we looked at is,
what can we put this meal into? So, you have to take a
20 look at the range of packaging options that are
available. The two predominant, there are really two
21 options of which to put that meal on in our business. One
is a polystyrene foam tray, the other one would be a paper
22 board -- I underscore the word paper board -- a paper
board tray. The reason that we have not done that is
23 that, environmentally, we have looked at the full life
cycle studies that have been performed, comparing one
24 versus the other, and they come out clearly in favour of
foam.
25
Because, remember that our polystyrene foam tray probably
26 weighs seven grammes or so. As replacement paper board
container, which by the way would have to be coded by
27 plastic, so it would be a plastic coding, would weigh
somewhere in the vicinity of 17 grammes. We studied this
28 issue with the Environmental Defence Fund also. They also
concluded at least at this point in time in our history
29 there is not a commercially available material that is
better than what we are using. We are committed; as soon
30 as we find something better, we want to switch.
