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      EPA Bans Its Own _Environmental_Consumer's_Handbook_
      After Makers of Disposables and Cleaning Products Complain

      By Jym Dyer

      Last October the Environmental Protection Agency released a
      44-page booklet:  _The_Environmental_Consumer's_Handbook_.
      This February they stopped distribution the booklet, allegedly
      because it contained "blanket statements" and "incorrect
      information."

      Environmental Action, an environmental lobbying and education
      organization, has obtained documents that suggest different
      motives.  From December 1990 through February 1991, the EPA
      received letters or visits from members of these organizations:

            The Foodservice and Packaging Institute
            Procter & Gamble
            Scott Paper
            Sweetheart Cup

      These organizations demanded that the EPA stop distributing
      the booklet, and they got what they wanted.  A letter from
      Scott Paper to EPA Assistant Administrator Donald Clay thanked
      him for arranging a meeting the company had been granted with
      EPA officials, because these officials "immediately halted
      further distribution of the book."

      The organizations' complaints are predictable, given the
      products they profit from.  The makers of disposable products
      complained because the book suggested such things as bringing
      a reusable cup to work, or using a sponge instead of paper
      towels.

      Procter & Gamble was concerned about tips on doing housework
      with simple compounds like baking soda, vinegar, and Borax.

      There are now dozens of consumer books on the market offering
      these tips.  The EPA is now working on a revised edition which
      may well exclude the very same tips the other books recommend!

      Environmental Action has copies of the EPA's original handbook,
      and you can write their Solid Waste Alternative Project (SWAP)
      to get a copy.  Environmental Action also recommends that
      you write to Bruce Weddle at the EPA, "tell him you like the
      booklet, and that you would rather see your tax dollars go
      to helping the public, than to protecting the interest of
      companies that make toxic household cleaners and disposable
      products."  Here are some addresses:

            SWAP
            Environmental Action
            1525 New Hampshire Ave.. NW
            Washington, DC  20036

            Bruce Weddle
            Director, Office of Solid Waste
            U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
            401 M St., SW
            Washington, DC  20460

      [Information for the above comes from the May/June 1991 issue of
      _Environmental_Action_Magazine_.  Feel free to redistribute this
      information widely.]