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Welcome to Raising Califorina where you will be taken behind the scenes to peek at the lives of a Southern California family. You will have access to never before seen footage and exclusive interviews that will give you insight on what it is like to be a kid in California!


THE JOURNEY BEGINS HERE!

Earth Day Giveaway

Our family has been working hard to be as green as possible. We recycle, we reuse, we reduce and we respect the Earth by making conscientious choices. In honor of Earth Day(everyday should be Earth Day), we decided to help the Earth by helping others! Yes, you read that correctly :) We think that by helping others "be green" and by spreading our ideas about "green living", we can make more of an impact.

Did you know that plastic bags are made from petroleum? Yes, they are made from oil. As a matter of fact, Americans use over 380 billion bags every year, throwing away millions of barrels of oil.

Each year, approximately 6 billion plastic bags are consumed in Los Angeles County alone. This is equivalent to 600 bags per person per year. Nationwide, 60,000 plastic bags are used every five seconds. See the counter at the top of this page to see real time numbers regarding plastic bag use.

Approximately 150,000 tons of plastic bags are disposed by Los Angeles County residents each year. You do the math to figure out how many tons are disposed of nationwide :)

Disposable bags cost our cities up to 17 cents per bag for disposal.

100,000 marine animals are killed annually by entanglement in marine debris such as plastic bags.

(the above facts were obtained by HealtheBay.org)

Urge your city to ban plastic bags like Santa Monica did in March of this year! Go HERE to read about it. In the meantime, we would like to give away reusable bags to help you on your journey. You will have a choice of ONE of the THREE options from ReusableBags.com below:

# 1 ONE Organic Cotton String Bag (can be used for groceries and a slew of other things)


# 2 TWO Organic Cotton Net Produce Bags (use these instead of the flimsy plastic ones you get at the store that can never really be used again)


# 3 ONE Wrap-n-Mat Sandwich Bag (use this instead of a baggie...it is an instant placemat as well)



HOW TO ENTER TO WIN/CONTEST RULES:

1. Leave a comment below
2. Tell me which of the three choices you would like to win.
3. Explain how you plan to be "greener" this year besides using your free reusable bag:)
4. Write about and link to this post in your blog.
5. This contest is open until April 30th. I will pick ONE winner on that day and notify that winner by leaving a comment on the post that links to this post.

Love your Mother. Recycle, Reuse, Reduce, Restore, and Respect!

3 comments:

Miriam Herm said...

Once again, thank you for all of those interesting facts! I already have bags to hold my groceries. At certain grocery stores, I get 5 cents back each time I reuse a bag. My favorite is your produce bags. If I don't win, I'm going to go out and get some of those anyway. I don't use a bag if I only get one vegetable, or one fruit, but I do get a bag if I get more than one. And the way we consume fruits and veggies in our house means that more often than not, I'm bringing home several bags.
Good for you and Happy Earth Day today!

Unknown said...

wow, this one's going to be tough!

L.A. Mama said...

YAY Bird!!! I want the produce bags too.

Mario...you can think of something! You could change one regular light bulb to a compact flourescent bulb. You could turn the water off when you brush your teeth unless you need it to rinse your brush or the sink. You could recycle more. Here is something really eas: bring your own bags to the store and make sure that you re-use or recycle most of the bags you get from the store.

You want your little guy to have clean air, water and land when he is older. So just make one little commitment. Next year you can make another...it will add up.

Can't wait to hear what you have come up with!!