Day 001 - 28 Jun 94 - Page 34
1 is Professor of Chemical Physics at the University of
Strathclyde will say that it has not. He has, for
2 example, calculated that in 1991 the amount of HCFC -- it
happens to be 22 -- used on behalf of McDonald's in this
3 exercise was about 0.022 per cent of world usage.
4 My Lord, there is this further consideration, from the
time when it was first proposed that HCFCs might cause
5 damage to the ozone later, though in a different way from
CFCs, the plaintiffs have been working with their
6 suppliers of polystyrene foam to change as fast as they
practically can from HCFCs to hydrocarbons for this
7 purpose. Though it must be added that even hydrocarbons
are not without their problems so far as the environment
8 is concerned. My Lord, I add this: It was not in every
country in every case that HCFC succeeded CFC. In the
9 United Kingdom where CFC were used for a period of only
about 18 months, McDonald's suppliers changed straight
10 back to Pentane (which is a hydrocarbon) after the
Montreal Protocol in 1988 condemned HCFCs.
11
My Lord, in the result, by January 1993, there were no
12 countries in the world where CFCs were still being used to
produce polystyrene foam for McDonald's and only nine
13 which were still using HCFCs, most of those being in the
Far East, one exception was Hungary.
14
Professor Duxbury is, therefore, able to conclude, and I
15 quote: "Given the rate of phase-out, the environmental
impact of the blowing agent (HCFC22) should soon be
16 negligible".
17 My Lord, the second question I ask is this: Has the
plaintiffs' use of paper for packaging made a significant
18 contribution to the loss of trees and forest environment
in the world at large? I answer that question in the
19 following way: First, the plaintiffs' paper has only ever
come from trees grown in sustainable managed forests,
20 never from rainforests.
21 Second, in North America (which is by far the plaintiffs'
largest single market and where almost all the packaging
22 is now made from paper) it is estimated that the
plaintiffs' use of paper accounts for only -- a maximum
23 this is -- 9.4 square miles timberland annually. That is
0.00125 per cent of the total timberland cover of the
24 USA. My Lord, one reason for that, of course, is that
50 per cent of the paper used in McDonald's packaging in
25 the USA is now recycled.
26 In Europe, my Lord, the paper used for McDonald's
packaging consumed a mere 1.3 square miles annually.
27 I invite your Lordship to consider whether those figures,
totalling, I think it is, 10.7 square miles annually may
28 helpfully compare with the 800 square miles alleged in the
leaflet.
29
Finally this, my Lord: There are now more trees in North
30 America and in Europe than ever before. In North America,
there are 28 per cent of more trees than there were in
