Day 009 - 08 Jul 94 - Page 29


     
     1        was a campaign to spread information about polystyrene
              usage by McDonald's.
     2
         Q.   As part of that campaign, or just as a campaign on its
     3        own, were you aware of school children posting back ---
              A.  No
     4
         Q.   -- styrofoam packaging?
     5        A.  No, I am not aware of that. I am aware of school
              children that would go to either one or two of our
     6        restaurants and make their interest known to the store
              management.  That I am aware of.
     7
         Q.   How were they making their interests known?
     8        A.  I do not know.  I was not there.  I knew of the
              reports.
     9
         Q.   What, company reports?
    10        A.  No.  I just knew -- I am not sure -- I think it was in
              the newspapers, I recall.
    11
         Q.   Right.  It was quite a widespread thing, was it not?
    12        A.  No.  The vast majority of our input, as I said
              yesterday, part of my responsibility is to review all
    13        customer enquiries about the environment.  That is part of
              my responsibility.  Back then, the vast majority of our
    14        enquiries about the environment were not of the category
              that you talked about.  They were a wide range of
    15        different people asking about the polystyrene issue.
 
    16   Q.   You read reports about protests of, you know, people going
              into stores, school children going into stores?
    17        A.  Yes.
 
    18   Q.   But you did not read any reports about thousands of
              letters pouring into McDonald's head office on the
    19        styrofoam issue?
              A.  I know we did not.  I know exactly how many letters we
    20        got at McDonald's -- it was not thousands of letters.
 
    21   Q.   How many do you say it was then?
              A.  Again I would have to check exactly.  Probably -- what
    22        year are you asking about?
 
    23   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Do you have a particular year in mind or do
              you want to give a bracket of time?
    24
         MISS STEEL:  Hold on a second.  I think it was in the late
    25        80s/early 90's.
              A.  We started receiving hundreds of letters on the 
    26        polystyrene issue, probably beginning 1988, 1989 through 
              1990, until we made the switch.  Our general customer 
    27        base, that included youth, it included senior citizens and
              it included adults.  We had a wide variety of letters come
    28        in.  My estimation, for example, for the year 1989 would
              be perhaps 7,000 to 10,000 letters would have come in on
    29        this issue.  I cannot answer how many came from youths or
              kids, but it was a variety of input from all ages.
    30
         Q.   So it was a considerable number of people writing into

Prev Next Index