P&G; Agrees to Modify Its Disposable Diaper Ads : * Marketer: The consumer products giant bows to claims that it misrepresented the availability of solid waste composting facilities.

Procter & Gamble Co., which has gone to great lengths to defend the environmental soundness of its disposable diapers, agreed Thursday to modify future ads for Luvs and Pampers in a dispute that arose from the continuing “green marketing” investigations by attorneys general in 10 states, including California.

The state officials alleged that P&G; misrepresented the current availability of municipal solid waste composting facilities--those that process household trash rather than yard waste. Specifically, the task force charged that the company had wrongly claimed that:

* Its diapers are 100% compostable, when only 80% of the material can be composted.

* Household trash composting facilities are widely available, when only 10 U.S. cities have them.

* Such facilities are being rapidly built, which the task force said is not the case.

P&G; agreed to discontinue the print ad in question and in future ads to change and give greater prominence to its description of the potential for composting disposable diapers. The Cincinnati-based firm will also provide a toll-free number for consumers wanting to recycle diapers and pay each state $5,000 in investigation costs.

In any event, the giant consumer-products company had decided earlier not to run the questioned ad again, spokesman Scott Stewart said Thursday.

“We still believe it would meet any legal test,” Stewart said. He also objected to suggestions that the company was trying to hide the true state of trash composting in fine print. “The body copy is of the same size” as other text in the ad, he added.

Some environmentalists, while generally praising the agreement, said it should have called for more.

The task force did not look at P&G;’s television ads, noted Mark Murray, policy director of Californians Against Waste. Neither will the company have to pay damages or initiate a public education campaign.

California, New York, Florida, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin are represented on the task force, which has in recent months reached similar agreements over environmental claims with such companies as Mobil Corp., which makes Hefty bags, and Alberto-Culver, a hair-products manufacturer.