Day 060 - 02 Dec 94 - Page 42
1 MR. MORRIS: How did your department then become aware of what
2 was going on if it did not have a copy of the report?
3 A. We had information from the McDonald's Corporate
4 Headquarters that they had gone into this arrangement with
5 the Environmental Defence Fund. It was purely an
6 information document. It was not a detailed document as
7 you have here.
8
9 Q. Is it true that it was considered a path making effort by
10 McDonald's Corporation to work with the environmentalists
11 in a practical way to look at practical things the company
12 was doing; is that how it was conceived?
13 A. It was very much a needed course of action for the
14 United States, yes.
15
16 Q. Was it needed for the UK?
17 A. No.
18
19 Q. Is that because there was any fundamental difference in the
20 environmental implications of UK packaging?
21 A. Yes.
22
23 Q. What are the fundamental differences between the UK and the
24 US?
25 A. We do not have a landfill problem in the UK; they do in
26 the US.
27
28 Q. So the only concern in this was landfill, was it?
29 A. I think that was the main concern there.
30
31 Q. You think so but you are not sure?
32 A. Well, I know it was the main concern was landfill in
33 the US.
34
35 MR. JUSTICE BELL: When was it that barge -- I saw its course
36 plotted in a document yesterday -- set off from the island
37 off New York and went all the way down to the Gulf, and had
38 no success there and came all the way back again, which
39 I remember reading about in the newspapers. Can you
40 remember which year that was?
41 A. No, I vaguely -----
42
43 Q. Was that before this?
44 A. I do not know.
45
46 Q. You cannot remember?
47 A. I vaguely remember the story.
48
49 Q. We saw a map of it. It maybe my eye fell it on it when
50 I was trying to find another document yesterday.
51
52 MR. MORRIS: So are you saying that the same apparent concern
53 about environmental consequences of packaging from the
54 States are not relevant to this country because at the
55 moment there is enough space in landfill?
56 A. In this particular instance, yes.
57
58 Q. So, for example, concern that may have been expressed in
59 here about chlorine bleaching, for example, of packaging
60 would be an unimportant part of the US concern?
