Day 009 - 08 Jul 94 - Page 16
1 to it in specifics elsewhere.
2 Q. I will just give an example. I might be wrong. When
something says "printed on recycled paper", I know it does
3 not specify post and preconsumer -- this is the EDF
McDonald's report -- if it says that, would it be 100 per
4 cent recycled or----?
A. OK, that is a good question. First of all, when that
5 was published in April 1991, I cannot tell you if that is
when the FTC guidelines came out. I can tell you today
6 that if we were to print that report, if we used simply
"printed with recycled paper", that would mean it was
7 made with 100 per cent post-consumer paper because,
therefore, that is not -- that is a very accurate
8 statement.
9 Q. So the guidelines now are that if you say "recycled
paper", it has to be post-consumer. If it is 100 per cent
10 recycled, it has to be 100 per cent post-consumer recycled
now, these days?
11 A. These are guidelines, yes. Again it is not law. The
guidelines that are referred to probably read on to about
12 a hundred pages. So they are not prescriptive. They are
still not black and white, and even on this issue it is
13 very discretionary as to how the company would label. It
only applies to labelling for packaging.
14
Q. Right. Because that is direct to the public?
15 A. Correct -- well, I cannot say that. I can just say it
is meant for packaging. I think it is intended for
16 broader communication to the public.
17 Q. Did you say that the corrugated boards that you use was
100 per cent, has that always been 100 per cent recycled?
18 A. Made with recycled content?
19 Q. It has always included some recycled content?
A. I cannot say that for sure. I can tell you that when
20 I started at Perseco and continued our research with that,
we found, when we published the report with EDF, the
21 industry average in 1990 was 21 per cent recycled content
for all corrugated boxes in the United States, of which
22 approximately half of that was post-consumer. The other
was preconsumer. That is what our research found at that
23 point in time. I cannot speak towards earlier than that.
Traditionally, however, corrugated boxes have been, you
24 know, recycled in America, especially in a small way
always building up in the commercial industry.
25
Q. This post-consumer content in recycled paper which
26 McDonald's use in their packaging, that post consumer
content, is that rising each year as there is more
27 consumer waste that is reprocessed or is it staying
roughly the same?
28 A. No. What we are trying to do, our company is again
emphasising, we want to maximise the use of post consumer
29 material, both in our paper and any other packaging we
use. So our general philosophy is to maximise and to
30 continue to figure out ways to increase post-consumer
usage, both in, for instance, carry out bags. We do not
