Day 007 - 06 Jul 94 - Page 07
1 A. That is correct, sir.
2 Q. To suppliers you emphasise source reduction both so far as
their purchases and their manufacturing processes were
3 concerned?
A. That is correct, sir.
4
MR. JUSTICE BELL: I hope that reflects -----
5
MR. RAMPTON: When we speak, Mr. Kouchoukos, of source
6 reduction, are we speaking in terms of volume or of weight
or of both?
7 A. Typically weight and sometimes volume. When we made
some changes with foam packaging we are looking for volume
8 reductions, but most of our packaging reductions are by
weight.
9
Q. Have I got this right? Just touching on polystyrene foam
10 for a moment, the lighter a given volume of polystyrene
foam, take a cubic foot, which is a measurement of volume
11 -- you will correct my layman's science if I go wrong,
will you not -- a cubic foot of polystyrene foam, the
12 lighter it is, the less foam within that cubic foot?
A. Correct, so there will be a lower density, yes.
13
Q. Does that entail that a greater amount in weight of
14 blowing agent must have been used to produce that effect?
A. Yes, more blowing would be used.
15
Q. Does this or these considerations, reduction, recycling
16 and re-use, have practical constraints on the ground, as
it were?
17 A. Definitely, in terms of source reduction. As we look
for source reduction, we definitely cannot impact the
18 performance of the product. I will back track a little to
explain how we evaluate a package. We look at
19 environmental performance; we look at crew operational
performance; that is how the crew is handling and able to
20 put the sandwich products, french fries, whatever it is,
into the package effectively; we look at customer
21 operations; is the customer's ease of use of the package
good? Can he get the sandwiches in and out of the
22 container as well as he might? The fourth constraint
would be cost. We balance those all equally. There is no
23 priority of criteria; it is a balance of all of those.
24 Q. I was going to ask you this, Mr. Kouchoukos: In your
relationship with McDonald's, do you feel pressure to cut
25 corners in relation, for example, to environmental
performance on account of cost?
26 A. No, I do not think so. We always balance the optimum
or the best environmental impacts we can, given costs,
27 given other performance criteria. It is always a balance.
28 MR. JUSTICE BELL: The other performance criterion may be
relevant to cost anyway, may it not?
29 A. Source reduction ---
30 Q. How quickly and easily you can put something in a package,
things of that kind?
