Day 009 - 08 Jul 94 - Page 18
1 industry average for recycled content was 21 per cent, and
that the industry average -- of that 21 per cent half of
2 that was post-consumer. I cannot tell you what the
industry averages were in the 80s, save to say they were
3 no more than that, they had to be less than that. We
never in our communication at McDonald's, to my knowledge,
4 during the 80s we did not communicate that in any way to
the public. The numbers we communicated had to do with
5 our post, our consumer packaging.
6 Q. So would you say it is fair to say that after 1990 there
was a bit of sea change in McDonald's with regard to the
7 use of recycled paper?
A. The word, did you say "sea"?
8
MR. JUSTICE BELL: Do you know what that means?
9 A. No, sea, like the .....
10 MR. MORRIS: A major development after 1990 really.
11 MR. JUSTICE BELL: A complete change of attitude, as it were,
or the way you operate.
12
MR. MORRIS: Practice.
13
MR. JUSTICE BELL: I think it comes from when the sea comes
14 into a pool of water it changes, the whole lot gets
changed, or maybe the way the sea goes in the wind or tide
15 but it means a complete change.
A. OK. No, I would not describe it as that, not a
16 complete change. What it was was an evolution. If you
refer to our report we did with the Environmental Defense
17 Fund, which was during the same period of time, you will
see we devoted an entire chapter on the issue of how to
18 put recycled content into our packaging.
19 What we learned during that process, that six month study
that we did, was, yes, indeed, it sure makes a lot of
20 sense. We agreed with the Environmental Defense Fund and
we agreed with the advocates at that time outside the
21 Environmental Defense Fund that the use and the emphasis
on post-consumer content should be stressed. So out of
22 our relationship with the EDF, we had an evolving
packaging philosophy that did put more emphasis on
23 post-consumer paper.
24 MR. MORRIS: As far as McDonald's own customer waste is
concerned, you had a recycling programme that at one stage
25 was up to a thousand stores which is something like 10 per
cent of the stores?
26 A. It would be at the time, I would say a thousand stores
we probably had 85 hundred restaurants, so that is 13, 14
27 per cent.
28 Q. But it was not successful for whatever reason. Does that
continue today? How many stores today are recycling post
29 customer waste?
A. How many -- we have a handful of stores, probably less
30 than ten. If you want me to explain that, I will give you
more detail.
