Day 008 - 07 Jul 94 - Page 36


     
     1   Q.   From what point of view?
              A.  For our customer usage, for the sandwich, for crew
     2        operations etc., and what we were pursuing -----
 
     3   Q.   Pleas pause there.  Sorry, I do not mean to interrupt but
              it is important that I just fit this in now.  Is it also
     4        cost effective in packaging material?
              A.  Yes.
     5
         Q.   So it is attractive from all those three points of view?
     6        A.  All of them.  So, I already described our recycling
              efforts of polystyrene, because again, going back to the
     7        whole landfill issue in the United States, we wanted to
              try to minimise our impact of using polystyrene foam
     8        packaging.  Therefore, we were pursuing very aggressively
              the recycling of polystyrene foam packaging.
     9
              At the same time, the Perseco company was pursuing (as
    10        they always do) alternative packaging options.  Actually,
              it was a longer developmental chain.  We had spent two to
    11        three years developing this new, I call it a quilted wrap,
              you can call it a layered wrap.  We had developed a very
    12        new technology, our suppliers had, they had brought it to
              us.
    13
              It took a lot of time for us to evaluate it, to go through
    14        the test kitchen, to go through the one store test, to go
              through ten store test.  We have a normal testing process
    15        that we go through.  It was during this same polystyrene
              recycling test that we were also testing alternative
    16        packaging.
 
    17        When we formed the partnership with the Environmental
              Defence Fund, all their information was laid on the
    18        table:  We have polystyrene foam, all of its pros and
              cons; its recyclability, its difficulty to recycle.  We
    19        have the layered wrap, all of its pros and cons.
 
    20        Then we have the American situation in terms of what our
              environment is like, what the issues are, the landfill
    21        crisis, as they called it back then, and we looked at all
              that information as McDonald's and made a decision to
    22        switch chiefly due to the source reduction achieved
              through volume reduction by changing the paper wraps.
    23
         Q.   Right.
    24
         MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Could I just interrupt and ask one thing
    25        while it is on my mind:  How high a profile does the
              Environmental Defence Fund have in the States?  I mean, 
    26        most people who bother to read anything at all in this 
              country have heard of Greenpeace and Friends of the 
    27        Earth.  Then, no doubt, there are various other groups of
              people whose particular interests is the environment.  But
    28        how do I get the feel of the Environmental Defence Fund?
              I can read what is in the first paragraph?
    29        A.  They are the top five.  They are one of the top five.
              The reason you have not heard of them versus -- a bigger
    30        one in the United States is the World Wild Life Fund,
              National Wild Life Federation, Greenpeace is also larger,

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