Day 124 - 10 May 95 - Page 35
1 evidence -- some local counties or I cannot remember
2 exactly. It became quite a big concern?
3 A. Well, what I recall was there was a county in New York
4 State, Suffolk County, as I recall, or it might have been
5 Nassau County, Long Island, passed a ban on the use of
6 styrofoam packaging. I do not recall the year; perhaps
7 some witness before me has given you that information. But
8 my recent recollection of that is that the City Council or
9 the body that passed the ban a few years ago has just
10 recently reviewed the issue and evidently upon further
11 study realised that the use of packaging, the agents that
12 went into the formation of the packaging, was not, in fact,
13 harmful at all, and they want to rescind the ban on
14 packaging which, basically, supports the information that
15 the industry had supplied that governmental body. So they
16 have done their own research or gotten additional research,
17 and their view of the matter is somewhat different today
18 than it was then.
19
20 Q. But the point that I am asking about anyway is that there
21 was pressure on McDonald's to review its packaging material
22 at that time, use of styrofoam?
23 A. It certainly caused us to review the use of that
24 packaging, but we are constantly looking at all of the
25 packaging that we use to see if we can improve the quality
26 of our product. So that was again a state of the art
27 vehicle package that was used then. So, yes, we were
28 disturbed that there was a likelihood that we would have to
29 discontinue its use.
30
31 Q. Presumably, you were very pleased to be put under pressure
32 and under the public spotlight about your use of styrofoam
33 packaging blown with CFCs agents, yes?
34 A. We were?
35
36 Q. Pleased.
37 A. Of course we were not pleased.
38
39 Q. You would not want to contribute to the destruction of the
40 ozone layer, would you, for example, with your packaging
41 materials?
42 A. We certainly would not knowingly use packaging or any
43 other substance that would be harmful to the environment.
44 We certainly would not want to break any laws in the
45 development of packaging, so I would not -----
46
47 Q. It is always very helpful then that people put you under
48 pressure -----
49
50 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No. You see, you throw yourself by using the
51 words "put under pressure". Most people do not enjoy being
52 put under pressure; they may not mind that much, they may
53 grow pretty resistant to it. But, by and large, they
54 would, I would suppose, rather be educated, if it is in a
55 topic which has not already occurred to them, in a more
56 gentle way than being put under pressure. So, the moment
57 you start off your question: "You would enjoy being put
58 under the pressure", the answer is bound to be "no"
59 whatever follows.
60
