Surviving the eco-test McDonald’s staff score high points for accommodating eccentric watchdogs IT WAS 7 a.m. Dawn had barely broken when the un- suspecting staff at the Lonsdale McDonald’s were subjected to an_ intensive eco-test by a small group of strangely garbed women. The primary purpose of the oc- casion was not, in fact, to check out the environmental commit- ment of the restaurant. The event was the fifth annual banquet of the Always Look Twice Society, a select group of refined individuals such as myseif who spend their summers trying to outdo each other in collecting the greatest variety of out-of-province licence plates. Our annual McDonald’s business meeting, award ceremony and breakfast banquet is always a gala affair, and although the other restaurant patrons have sometimes fooked askance at our secret handshakes, the inspired singing of our theme song and our chairperson’s outlandish costumes, a good time has always been had by all. Last year, however, it was with a sinking heart that we looked around the banquet table and tru- ly took note of the planetary price we were exacting as the cost for our jollity. Paper cups, plastic cutlery, disposable napkins and polystyrene containers littered the table in silent reproach. It was then we vowed to do better in the future. And so it was that this year’s banquet found us with mug in hand, determined to minimize our waste as much as possible. From her home Madam Chairperson Chris Whittaker had brought china plates, cutlery, cloth napkins, cream in a bottle and ex- tra mugs. It is all very well to bring these things along. It is another matter “to tote your plate down to the counter and throw an anti-packag- ing wrench into the gears of the breathlessly efficient fast-food gang that’s accustomed to filling your order in a matter of seconds. Screwing our courage to the sticking point and clutching each other’s shirt sleeves for moral support, we headed down to the Wolo Correction Notice FULL SCALE SALE CONTINUES FLYER Appeared Oct. 14, 1990 Page 9. Copy states ‘‘use it as a bathroom curtain topper too.”’ This information is incor- tect. This product cannot be used on the tension bar as the top seam has too narrow an opening. We are sorry for any inconve- nience this may have caused our customers. Peggy Trendell-Whittaker ECOINFO counter en masse, and timidly re- quested that our food come with as fitle packaging as humanly possible. Call me a cynic, but | had ex- pected some kind of resistance from this multinational munch house. Like, ‘‘sorry, but health regulations dictate that we must provide at least a paper covering” — or something like that. Instead, the two women behind the counter cheerfully loaded the food straight onto the china, and filled our four special Egg McMuffin hold-the-ham orders with nary a batted eyelid. Returning to our table, Mushed with triumph, we tucked into our banquet and tallied our score: be- tween six adults, we figure we kept six polystyrene ‘‘clamshell’’ packages, eight paper cups, eight napkins, several pieces of plastic cutlery, six stir sticks (say that three times fast), six individual creamo packages, and a few card- board hash browns packages out of the garbage can. At the end of the meal, we were left with one handful of throw- aways from our table: paper sugar packets (we had forgotten to bring our own), two decal coffee packets (we didn’t Know it came in a package when we ordered it) and an empty ketchup serving (when she was packing our eco- kit, Madam Chairperson hadn't anticipated that any ALT Society members would actually choose to indulge in that condiment at a.m.). 1 must confess, however, that my beloved almast-two-year-old niece fet down the team average as her meal was served in disposables, at her mother’s re- quest, Not being a mother myself. 1 am not privy to the thought pro- cesses that would have gone into making this decision, but | suspect it had something to do with vi- sions of china plates and ceramic mugs hitting the tile floors. Members of the society also voted to donate this year’s club dues (which are usually used to defray banquet costs) to buying one acre of Amazon rainforest. We figured it was the least we could do, since our society's whole raison d’etre revolves around that king among polluters, the automobile. So, what did I learn from this early-morning exercise? I learned that it pays off to take a chance. I also learned that, once again, } came up last in the licence plate contest, and | would like to take this opportunity to pass on my official, albeit begrudging, con- gratulations to the winner, my sister Sue, who spotted the plates from 56 different provinces, states and countries. Ya gotta hand it to her. ““I need some imsurance.”? North Vancouver 101 — 11f2 Lonsdale 986-4321 (a4 Fm Mike O°Connor and | can help you with that. So can other insurance agencies, but at NorCu we can offer vou something different — we're affiliated with North Shore Credit Union. That means we have a high standard of customer service. It also means we're going to be here for the long term, serving you with property insurance, life insurance, auto insurance and more. 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