Day 059 - 01 Dec 94 - Page 41
1 packaging. You mentioned, I think, reuse as a way of
2 reducing the amount of packaging which is used and,
3 therefore, the amount of packaging which goes into the
4 waste stream, yes?
5 A. Yes.
6
7 Q. You told us that you had rejected that, reusables, for
8 reasons principally of hygiene but also because it was
9 energy expensive as compared with disposables?
10 A. Yes.
11
12 Q. I am going to ask you about two other areas of waste
13 reduction or resource use reduction, recycling, yes?
14 A. Yes.
15
16 Q. And reduction overall in the amount of packaging which you
17 use. May I , first of all, ask you about the recycling of
18 polystyrene? You, I think, had at one time (perhaps still
19 do) a project in being which attempted to recycle the
20 polystyrene which had been used in your restaurants?
21 A. That is correct.
22
23 Q. What is the status of that project at the moment? Is it
24 still alive, is it developed or is it dead?
25 A. The project is still running in five restaurants in the
26 Manchester area.
27
28 Q. It began, I think, some sometime in 1989, did it not?
29 A. 1988, I think.
30
31 Q. 1988, sorry.
32 A. Yes.
33
34 Q. 1988. It might be suggested that its growth rate since
35 then has not been very great?
36 A. No, it has not.
37
38 Q. I was going to ask you what the reasons for that were?
39 A. Okay. It is very simple. There was really, when we
40 started the project, there was no infrastructure available
41 to handle recycled materials. At a later date, we
42 persuaded Lin Pac to put in a recycling plant to handle
43 polystyrene foam boxes. That plant was established, is now
44 operating but, frankly, it is only just financially viable
45 even today. I am sure -- I am not sure if Lin Pac are
46 witnesses, but I am sure they would tell you exactly the
47 same thing.
48
49 Until we can get the recycled boxes from our restaurants
50 into a recycling plant and then reused again in a Lin Pac
51 factory to produce, say, insulation for refrigeration or
52 any other form of plastics, until we can do that, it is
53 really not going to be viable to switch the whole market on
54 to recycling of polystyrene foam boxes. When we can do
55 that, of course, we will eventually close the loop
56 completely from boxes in our restaurants to reuse in some
57 other form in our restaurants. The boxes recycled cannot
58 be reused in our restaurants as food packaging, so they
59 have to be used in some other form.
60
