Day 011 - 12 Jul 94 - Page 02
1 12th July 1994
2 Mr. Lipsett, recalled.
Cross-Examined by Mr. Rampton, continued.
3
MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, I am left with landfills so far as
4 Mr. Lipsett is concerned.
5 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
6 MR. RAMPTON: You recall, Mr. Lipsett, in your written report
-- do you still have it there?
7 A. Yes, I do.
8 Q. On the penultimate page of text under the heading: Issues
Surrounding Polystyrene Foam Food Packaging Disposal, yes?
9 A. Yes.
10 Q. The second paragraph under that heading at the bottom of
the page reads as follows: "Landfill disposal of foam
11 products results in an over filling of landfills with
bulky non-degrading plastics. In the environment these
12 foam substances do not decay and can be found on beaches
and littering roadsides when they are not disposed of in
13 landfills. CCHW research determined that McDonald's
contributed 1.3 billion cubic feet of foam packaging waste
14 to the nation's waste stream annually".
A. Yes.
15
Q. Upon what density was that figure of 1.3 billion cubic
16 feet based?
A. Upon what? Sorry, I did not hear the third word.
17
Q. Upon what density per cubic feet?
18 A. Density?
19 Q. Yes, pounds per cubic foot?
A. The calculation was based on the figure in the Modern
20 Plastics article where it was stated that McDonald's was
using 70 million pounds of polystyrene or styrene in
21 1987. The calculation was based on deriving the volume
that that particular material would encompass and, based
22 on interviews with polymer scientists in the University of
Maryland, a general figure which would allow us to
23 calculate what would happen to that volume when it was
expanded by the blowing agents. So that the figure was
24 arrived at by multiplying 70 million pounds by the
specific gravity of styrene, then multiplying that again
25 by a factor of 20 which was the figure we were informed
was the correct figure for the expansiveness, the degree
26 to which that volume would expand when foam was blown with
gas. That is how the figure is arrived at.
27
Q. Yes. In a landfill site?
28 A. Yes.
29 Q. Polystyrene is compacted polystyrene foam, is it not,
squashed?
30 A. No, I would say that polystyrene is crushed. When it
is crushed it is crushed unevenly. The actual foam does