🚀 go-pugleaf

Here is a press release issed last week by the Natural Resources 
Defence Council. I downloaded the press release from the PR On-Line 
BBS in Maryland at 410-363-0834. I don't work for the NRDC.

 NRDC Urges OMB, Council on Economic Advisors, Senate to Get Smart
on Government Recycled Paper Purchases
 To: National Desk, Environmental Writer
 Contact: Allen Hershkowitz or Karen O'Malley, 212-727-2700, or
          Jessica Landman or Sarah Silver, 202-783-7800,
          all of the Natural Resources Defense Council

   WASHINGTON, Sept. 1   -- The Natural Resources
Defense Council (NRDC) today urged federal officials to resist the
paper industry's assault on a proposed Executive Order designed to
increase government purchases of chlorine-free recycled paper.
   In letters to Vice President Gore; Leon Panetta, director of the
Office of Management and Budget; Laura D'Andrea Tyson, chair of the
Council on Economic Advisors; and every U.S. senator, NRDC warned
that if the government did not send strong market signals to the
paper industry encouraging the production of chlorine-free recycled
paper, America's paper industry would soon become obsolete in the
international marketplace.  The order has been significantly
weakened over the last several weeks by the lobbying efforts of the
American Forest and Paper Association.
   "Saving recycling means saving the paper industry," said Allen
Hershkowitz, NRDC senior scientist and solid waste expert.
"Unfortunately, of the 18 OECD countries, the U.S. ranks 15th in
paper recycling.  We are already closed out of many European
markets because of our reliance on virgin timber and chlorine
bleaching."
   "The strongest economic powers in the world have the highest
recycling rates," continued Hershkowitz.  "The paper industry is
today where the auto industry was 20 years ago -- using old,
wasteful technologies while our overseas competitors develop
advanced, efficient models that pollute less and will soon command
a large chunk of the market."
   Hershkowitz explained that encouraging federal purchases of
post-consumer recycled content paper is similar to U.S. laws
setting national fuel efficiency standards in 1975.  "Today, we
will again be doing the U.S. economy a great benefit by requiring
our obsolete and environmentally destructive paper industry to
comply with a high post-consumer content, chlorine-free recycling
requirement."
   In its letters to the Washington officials, NRDC urged that the
Executive Order include the following provisions:
   1.  That paper purchased by the federal government contain at
least 20 percent post-consumer recycled content by 1996, and 40
percent by the year 2000;
   2.  That the government set procurement goals for chlorine-free
paper; and
   3.  That state and local markets also be opened up to
environmentally oriented investing by requiring them to comply with
the purchasing criteria set out in the federal Executive Order.
   Since April 22, when President Clinton announced his intention
to issue this Executive Order, NRDC has aggressively defended text
that would maintain the above standards for recycled paper.  NRDC
has also signed on to a letter to President Clinton from a
coalition of environmental organizations to be delivered today
outlining the coalition's concerns over the current Executive
Order, and requesting a meeting to address these concerns.
   "We'd rather see no Executive Order at all than a bad one,"
concluded Hershkowitz.  "This Executive Order will send a signal to
diverse market interests, including state and local governments and
the private sector.  The administration has the opportunity to set
a national example, and drastically change market forces in favor
of environmentally-friendly paper products."
    ------
   A copy of NRDC's letter to the federal officials is available upon
request.

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-- 
Nigel Allen, Toronto, Ontario, Canada  ae446@freenet.carleton.ca