Day 059 - 01 Dec 94 - Page 42
1 Q. As you say, insulation or tables and chairs perhaps?
2 A. Yes, some kind of plastic reinforcement.
3
4 Q. If the project has been so recalcitrant, a child, why is it
5 you are still persisting with it?
6 A. Really, the ball is in Lin Pac's court currently. They
7 have the recycling plant. We have the polystyrene packages
8 in our restaurants. They have to find some way of
9 converting that polystyrene through the plant, through
10 their factory and back to us again. Until they do, we will
11 persevere because we think it is the right thing to do.
12 Ultimately, it stops these packages going into landfill
13 which is not an issue today but it may be one day.
14
15 Q. Can I move then from polystyrene foam to paper, but before
16 I do that, I would like to ask you this: Three means
17 identified by people interested in the topic, the 3 Rs, and
18 ways of reducing the amount of materials used and the
19 amount of materials put into the waste stream are
20 reduction, recycling and reuse?
21 A. Right.
22
23 Q. Of those three approaches -- of course, they can all go
24 together, I understand that -- reduction, recycling and
25 reuse, which do you see as being the most effective, if
26 any, in achieving the success which you would like to see?
27 A. It is a hard question and it is a balance between
28 reducing the amount of packaging that is used and recycling
29 the amount of packaging that is used. I would not like to
30 say that one took priority over the other.
31
32 Q. Does McDonald's do any of those things, reduction or
33 recycling?
34 A. Sorry?
35
36 Q. Does McDonald's reduce or recycle?
37 A. Oh, yes, absolutely -- both.
38
39 Q. Both. Can we have a look at paper, first of all? When one
40 speaks of recycled paper, must one recognise that there are
41 two senses in which that word is used, recycled?
42 A. Yes.
43
44 Q. That is to say, post-consumer waste and what one might call
45 saw mill or industrial waste; is that right?
46 A. Correct.
47
48 Q. When McDonald's speaks of recycled content in its paper
49 packaging, does it distinguish between those two kinds of
50 recycled content?
51 A. No, it does not.
52
53 Q. Do you personally know whether it is possible to say for
54 any particular packaging product what the proportions
55 between those two different kinds of recycled material is
56 likely to be?
57 A. In our case, it is not possible to say.
58
59 Q. One might suppose there are really two kinds of paper
60 packaging used by a company like yours; one would be that
