An article that began as a rough-draft rignt into this newsgroup was later
fleshed out he

http://www.paghat.com/rubbermulch.html

& has beenon the web for a long while now. The most important sentence
therein is the only thing that must be kept always in mind:

"Rufus Chaney of the USDA, following the research for 20 years, stated
that the majority of research leads to the conclusion that for the Zinc
factor alone, ground or chipped rubber should never be used in gardens."

Today I heard from activist Pauline Noble in Shropshire England:

"Whole tires were banned from landfill in the UK in 2003 and rubber crumb
is due to follow suit in July 2006. The Government / tire*industry here is
frantic.* They are selling this minced up cr*p to anyone that will buy
it, who in turn then*sell it on to the poor unsuspecting public whilst the
cadmium, copper and sulphates run off*happily down their drains. Sort of
good news, a radio station*got very interested in the story but even their
tenacious researchers*have had doors slammed firmly in their faces when
trying to get answers to questions.* It seems, as I have found over the
years*"don't go there" about fits the bill.* However, as with any good
journalism, they have recognised "spin" and have passed it down (in their
words) to "the big guns in London" to follow all this up. At last perhaps
I can sit back and hopefully someone with a lot more power than me is
going to take this on (I can now totally relate to*Erin Brochovich!)"

With bans on this harmful toxic product already coming in Britain, the
American profiteers are more worried than ever. Buying toxic waste cheap
to resell dearly to gardeners could well become illegal here, too. In
general the government is on the side of the tire industry on this,
because getting rid of old tires is an enormous problem, & tricking
gardeners into killing their yards with it was advocated by the government
even before a thousand companies began actually doing it.

Still, it now appears the toxic waste vendors are & running scared, & even
a bit hysterical. In the past three months I have been threatened with
lawsuits from two different rubber mulch vendors, saying they will take me
to court if I do not remove my article from the web. Both times I told
them, "Sue me! Sue me now! It'll be fun to take down a bunch of liars who
don't care how much harm you do!" I gave them my name & home address to
make it easier for them. Of course they went away with their tails down.

I heard from a third vendor who attempted to be disarmingly helpful in
providing me with a copies of "a recent study" that showed their product
to be harmless. The "study" was done in a garden set up by the vendor,
nice photos taken, & some baseless assertions made -- then printed up by
the vendor in the format of tear-sheets from a scientific journal, though
it was 100% fake. I told him to send me copies of INDEPENDENT studies he
didn't trump up at his wholesale company, & I'd give that all due
consideration. Never heard from that lying jackass again either.

I've also heard from a number of activists who asked permission to
distribute my article, & I got several e-mails from one poor sap who was
attempting to sue a landscaper who killed thousands & thousands of dollars
with of perennials spreading out rubber mulch, incurring further expenses
hiring anothner company to get the poisonous stuff back out of the
landscape, & wanting to use my article & any others I knew about in his
suit. Almost weekly I hear from someone who has been surfing the web
looking for belated information after laying this stuff in their yard only
to discover it killed everything & stunk up the place so horribly on hot
days that they couldn't even use their own yards or leave their doors or
windows open.

Good on for the UK in preparing to ban this stuff in 2006. The
toxic-waste-for-your-gardens industry is busy right now trying to stop the
ban from going into effect. They are scared shitless of publicity & of the
public knowing the facts. In the meantime the vendors of this poison
continue to peddle it as fast as they can, while writing threateningly to
activists who'd like gardeners to know never to use this stuff, or faking
"studies" in their vendor-operated "experimental" gardens in order to
fabricate non-data "proving" facts aren't facts. They know they've got to
make the killing (in all senses of the word) right now, because eventually
it'll be banned.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
Visit the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com