Day 010 - 11 Jul 94 - Page 41


     
     1        A.  I cannot speculate on that.
 
     2   Q.   OK.  Moving on from environment/index.html">litter -- just one point, do you
              recall during this campaign that McDonald's took the
     3        problem of environment/index.html">litter as part of their responsibility or what
              was their approach to it?
     4        A.  Well, the environment/index.html">litter problem, as far as I am aware,
              McDonald's never addressed directly the environment/index.html">litter issue.  In
     5        a general sense, there are organisations that are set up
              such as organisations like Keep America Beautiful which
     6        focus on the environment/index.html">litter issue exclusively and, in general,
              have argued for education of people so that they do not
     7        throw things in the street.
 
     8        But, in essence, the way that issue is framed, the
              responsibility is upon the consumer and is not placed any
     9        further up the stream of the product life-span.  In
              general, that we can characterise the way McDonald's used
    10        foam in its restaurants as part of a means to externalise
              some of its costs, costs associated with reusables or
    11        costs associated with disposal of materials that were
              heavier.
    12
         Q.   So you are saying it became someone else's problem once it
    13        left the store, basically?
              A.  That is right.
    14
         Q.   Moving on from that:  You touched upon briefly earlier on
    15        the recycling and recyclability considerations and issue.
              Can you just say something about that as a serious
    16        proposition for dealing with disposal problems?
              A.  Well, in general, recycling is a preferable means of
    17        dealing with otherwise what would be a waste product, but
              in a more general sense there are actually three Rs and
    18        I think they have been alluded to in earlier testimony
              there.
    19
              There is reduction or reduce, then there is reuse and then
    20        there is recycle; recycling being the last option of
              preference.  So that with regard to the styrene, the
    21        polystyrene foam issue, the matter, the issues we were
              raising were associated with the use of a product that had
    22        problems across the span of its life cycle, and that the
              solution was not going to be effective if what McDonald's
    23        proposed to do was simply recycle the food product,
              I mean, the foam packaging product; that recycling was not
    24        the solution, in our view, to the issues that we were
              raising.
    25
         Q.   Right.  Are you aware that McDonald's had some kind of 
    26        recycling programme on a certain scale? 
              A.  Well, as I have said, in 1989 members of the 
    27        organisation met with Shelby Yastrow at which point he
              announced that that would be McDonald's choice, and that
    28        they would adopt a recycling programme for the styrofoam.
 
    29   Q.   Their main choice?
              A.  The meeting was discussed with Mr. Yastrow, what
    30        McDonald's options were, what they were going to do and
              whether or not they would be willing to meet with a number

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