Day 062 - 06 Dec 94 - Page 31
1 MR. MORRIS: And they sell those granulates?
2 A. That granulate can be sold either on its own or mixed
3 with post-industrial waste or even mixed with virgin waste,
4 virgin polystyrene, if you will.
5
6 Q. So are they selling all the granulates they produce?
7 A. At this point in time they can actually, but something
8 I indicated earlier, the prices of virgin polystyrene have
9 risen sharply over the last -- in the last year so,
10 therefore, the recyclate market has picked up considerably
11 as well, and they can find markets for it quite easily at
12 the moment.
13
14 Q. Are they selling all of it or some of it?
15 A. At the moment they can sell practically all of it.
16
17 Q. So a year ago they had problems in that they could not find
18 buyers?
19 A. Yes, it started changing around the beginning of this
20 year.
21
22 Q. So would it be fair to say that as from the beginning of
23 this year they have begun to actually commercially use what
24 they have produced?
25 A. They have commercially used it always but in the past
26 it has been a loss making or barely-break even process, and
27 since in -- when exactly, I do not have the information on
28 when this has actually become like a real feasible option
29 because of the situation, the international market price
30 for virgin polystyrene, it has actually now become a
31 feasible operation for them.
32
33 Q. I am just trying to get on top of this. What were they
34 doing with it, with the material that they received at the
35 plant, for turning into granulates? What were they doing
36 before they commercially viably sell it? What were they
37 actually doing with it?
38
39 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Presumably, they were selling it but not
40 selling enough of it to do more than make a loss or barely
41 break-even?
42 A. Or sell it at lower prices. Eventually, you will sell
43 it but -----
44
45 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Eventually you sell it but at -----
46 A. Yes, or you have to store it temporarily until you can
47 sell it, but -----
48
49 MR. MORRIS: What I am saying is, they were collecting from, is
50 it, four restaurants originally?
51 A. I do not know. The Manchester trial -- because I have
52 not been involved in that first trial; I have only been or
53 involved in -- I am aware of the Manchester trial which has
54 involved five restaurants, if I am not mistaken, and that
55 still is ongoing.
56
57 Q. But of the material that was collected, the polystyrene
58 material that was collected, in those restaurants by the
59 customers, put in by the customers in the separate bins,
60 and taken to -- would it all have been taken to the Lin Pac
