Day 008 - 07 Jul 94 - Page 26
1 do not have page numbers -- that though you were not at
this time employed by McDonald's, you were one of the
2 members of the task force?
A. Yes, I was a member of the task force. I represented
3 Perseco. I represented the decision making person related
to packaging.
4
Q. Please tell us this: What was the stimulus or reason why
5 this partnership was created?
A. From our perspective or the Environmental Defence Fund
6 perspective?
7 Q. I do not mind -- both.
A. From our perspective, we had been doing many things to
8 try to reduce our solid waste impact. I referenced the
CONAG document as an example of that throughout the 80s.
9 However, we felt that we still need to learn much more,
and we also knew that we needed to find good, sound
10 science to help guide our decision making process. So,
the desire on McDonald's part was to find a partner that
11 could be objective, that could take a look from the
outside in and say to McDonald's: "You could do this, you
12 could do, to give us the science and the facts to move our
business forward from a solid waste management
13 perspective".
14 Q. Can I stop you there? We will come to the EDF angle in a
moment. From time to time, no doubt, public opinion
15 suggests that you should move in this, that or the other
direction. You have described some of those phenomena
16 earlier today?
A. Yes.
17
Q. When that happens, what is McDonald's reaction? Does it
18 jump in the direction that public opinion points
immediately or does it take time it to look at the thing?
19 A. One, is we do listen to our customers immediately so
we read all the letters. I personally see all the letters
20 that come into McDonald's related to environmental
issues. Phone calls are documented, so we have a very
21 firm pulse of what our customers think.
22 In terms of a response we take that into consideration and
we want to be able to respond to our customers. On the
23 other hand, we also want to take a look at the science and
the facts related to an issue to basically melt both
24 sides. Usually, the consumer side is somewhat simplistic
in terms of the issue. The issue is basically a very
25 complicated issue, so we try to work with both ends.
26 Q. Is the recycling of paper, in a broad sense, one of those
issues where it is necessary to proceed with a degree of
27 caution in relation to public opinion?
A. Yes.
28
Q. I think you told us that earlier, in effect. Can I ask
29 you whether you know what the motivation of the
Environmental Defence Fund was in this partnership?
30 A. The Environmental Defence Fund, in my opinion, saw
McDonald's as a leading company in the United States; that
