Day 005 - 04 Jul 94 - Page 42
1
Q. So is your position that McDonald's is not responsible for
2 environment/index.html">litter on the streets of this country?
A. I am responsible to put in place systems and
3 procedures which speak to the law, No.1, providing
receptacles, providing people, providing education to the
4 citizens of the country as to their social responsibility;
I do all three.
5
Q. But you are not responsible for the actual environment/index.html">litter itself
6 when it is dropped on the floor? You do not have any
obligations in that respect?
7 A. But I think if someone drops something in front of my
premises or within a reasonable distance, we have an
8 obligation under the law to pick it up. We do. If
someone buys something in a McDonald's restaurant or a
9 tobacconist and drives five miles away and chooses to roll
down the car window and throw it out on to the
10 countryside, I do not But I think I am responsible in any
way, shape or form.
11
Q. Do you think you are responsible under the law or
12 otherwise; you say you are responsible under the law in
terms of picking up the environment/index.html">litter near your premises, but for
13 in-store recycling or depositing of that environment/index.html">litter, do you
think you have an obligation for people to deposit that
14 environment/index.html">litter in your store?
A. I am sorry? Say that again?
15
Q. Do you feel you have an obligation to prevent, as far as
16 possible, the environment/index.html">litter that would otherwise be dropped on
the street from not going out of the door, as far as
17 possible, in your restaurants?
A. Yes -- and we do. There is not a McDonald's
18 restaurant in the world that does not contain internal
waste receptacles or staff who either police after tables
19 and floors that need cleaning or provide receptacles for
people themselves to deposit their waste in -- all 14,500
20 of them do that.
21 Q. Do you think that you have a responsibility to not create
packaging that could be thrown away?
22 A. But I think we have a social responsibility to be
sensible about how we package our goods, how we use the
23 world's resources, and But I think we are. When all the
studies come forth that compare what systems could be used
24 and the choice absolutely has to be made, the facts come
down resoundingly on the side of the McDonald's system.
25
Q. But is it true, for whatever reason, maybe, as you said,
26 it is the responsibility of the individual, that a large
amount of McDonald's packaging ends up on the streets of
27 this country?
A. What do you mean by a large amount? Does a cup find
28 its way on the pavement? Surely .
29 Q. I have seen the figure, for example, which we can dispute
or not dispute -- it does not matter; if we dispute it we
30 can check the document -- it is generation of over 100,000
tonnes of packaging waste.
