Day 008 - 07 Jul 94 - Page 42
1
The next question, Mr. Langert, is this: When did it
2 first come to your attention, as the chief Perseco person
in environmental matters and responsible for all of
3 McDonald's polystyrene foam packaging, that HCFC-22 might
not be quite so benign or, at any rate, unmaligned as had
4 been thought?
A. Well, we always knew it was a 95 per cent improvement
5 and we knew there was still a five per cent ozone
depletion effect. So, from the very beginning, we knew
6 that there was an interim step and our strategy, and
I worked and spent a very significant amount of time in
7 late 1989 and 1990 pursuing options and alternatives other
than HCFC-22.
8
As time progressed through 1989 and 1990 our research
9 activities accelerated because there was research that was
coming out every year that seemed to indicate that 22
10 might be a larger problem than even the 95 per cent
improvement, and that helped stimulate us to research even
11 harder.
12 Q. Tell me if this is right, in other words, you kept an eye
on it?
13 A. Well, more than an eye. We kept it as one of our top
priorities in terms of research and development.
14
Q. In view of the fact that you also told us that the use of
15 HCFC-22 as a blowing agent for McDonald's of polystyrene
foam was not a factor in the change over from polystyrene
16 foam to paper, can we then say that the change over
motivated by other considerations was simply a happy
17 coincidence?
A. Correct.
18
Q. When did you first learn that HCFC-22 might be as damaging
19 in a different way as CFCs had been recognised to be?
A. My recollection is sometime in 1990 the Montreal
20 Protocol was continually being updated, redrafted and
resubmitted. My recollection is in 1990 I think there was
21 some mention of HCFC-22 now being under the list that
would be eliminated somewhere long down the line. It
22 ended up on the elimination list.
23 Q. Since, so far as the United States was concerned, the
decision had already been made to change out of
24 polystyrene foam and into paper?
A. That is my recollection, is that actually when that
25 came out we had made our decision to phase out of foam
packaging. Our solution became rather apparent because we
26 switched to paper-based wraps.
27 Q. That is the United States?
A. Yes.
28
Q. In one sense could describe it perhaps, as a happy
29 coincidence, but in other parts of the world there was no
decision to change from polystyrene foam to paper, some
30 parts of the world like Latin America as we have seen.
What was the concern in those countries where HCFC-22 was
