Day 010 - 11 Jul 94 - Page 10
1 considering the implementation of foam food packaging
bans.
2
In addition to that, in 1990 the Society of the Plastics
3 Industry circulated a document internally a confidential
memo that we acquired. That said 49 or 50 states in the
4 United States were considering or had enacted restrictions
on foam food packaging or certain types of food packaging,
5 plastic food packaging.
6 Q. So your campaign was having quite some effect?
A. That is correct.
7
Q. The list that you referred to that Mr. Shelby Yastrow
8 brought out at a meeting with your organisation, how long
was that list?
9 A. To my recollection, it was about five pages long.
10 Q. Right. What about other government organisations and
corporations? What was their reaction to this campaign?
11 A. Well, a number of corporations during this period of
time announced that they were going to cease using foam
12 food package; Caesar's Pizza, Wendy's, and I believe also
Burger King made statements in the press, in the media,
13 and through documents they released public comments about
their decisions not to use foam as a food packaging
14 material in their food services.
15 Q. I think also the US Park Service and coast guard. Is that
right?
16 A. That is right. The coast guard announced that they
would not use foam food packaging on their ships, and the
17 Park Service, the United States Park Service, announced
they would not use foam food packaging in their cafeterias
18 and restaurants on park land.
19 Q. What about McDonald's? How did they respond to the
campaign? I think it may have varied over time?
20 A. Yes, as it says in my statement, there were at least
three stages to the way in which McDonald's responded to
21 the campaign. Initially, McDonald's attempted to
minimise -----
22
Q. If you want to refer to your statement?
23 A. OK. I can do that but, essentially, the point is that
McDonald's response to the campaign was in the three
24 stages to deny or minimise its culpability, and to utilize
public relations tactics in order to avoid coming under
25 too much media or public regulatory scrutiny.
26 The plastics industry, as a whole, came to McDonald's aid
in promoting the value of the food packaging product
27 through various public relations efforts, advertising
efforts, that were national in scope. McDonald's itself
28 relied upon the same kind of techniques, as far as I can
determine, internally by putting people in a position to
29 respond to phone calls about foam. Lorna Ersam is an
example in the early stage of a person that McDonald's
30 used to respond to these concerns as they were raised in
the public and through the news media.
