When I was a kid, I pretty much believed whatever the news anchor reported because I wasn’t aware of how political views and personal bias could distort and taint the news. As an adult, I don’t have a person or organization that I believe truly just reports facts and figures; however, I am open to suggestions. Walter Cronkite was one of a kind; however, I hope there are at least a few aspiring journalists out there that want to be like him.

EcoLita...who is the Ecodiva

“Paper or Plastic?”…..NOT!!

By EcoLita…who is the Ecodiva

It’s a bird, no, it’s a plane, no…it’s a plastic bag. You know the ones I am talking about. The plastic bags that fly around as you are driving down the road, the ones you see stuck on trees, cactus, (if you live in the desert) and anything else they can attach themselves too, are in fact, not only a major user of petroleum, but in addition a huge source of our litter in this country and around the planet.

It is estimated that we toss out around 100 Billion bags a year, which is equivalent to dumping 12 million barrels of oil…you do the math now and see how much money we are spending on plastic bags.

Unfortunately, we only recycle about 2% of the plastic bags in the US and maybe 1% worldwide.

They are in our land fills and will take centuries to decompose and break down. Of course, at this point, that’s a wild guess, because we do not really know, due to the fact that they have not been in the landfills for a century yet.

They also cause great distress to our wildlife and sea life, by tangling up animals and sea creatures and just creating one big sorry mess.

Yes, they can be recycled and when disposed of properly with recycling, they can be reused. However, we do not seem to do that very well.

People just toss them out and do not think about the negative impact these bags makes on our planet.

So, EcoLita will never complain about something, and not come up with a suggestion on how to change or do it differently.

It’s all about choices and I believe if you want to use less plastic bags or stop using them all together, then use paper bags or better yet, purchase those “recycled” plastic bags that the stores sell and use those every time you shop.

Almost every retail store, especially grocery stores, has the plastic grocery bags with handles, that can be used to tote your groceries and other products and they are wonderful to use, because they are stronger and last a long time.

The content of these bags are made from recycled plastic bags. They hold up longer, are stronger and are easier to handle. Most of the time they are a dollar or less and many of the stores are offering discount coupons to help consumers purchase more of them.

I keep them in my car, so I can take them into a store, when I shop.

Some stores, such as Trader Joes and others offer paper first, over plastic and that is a better option, than the plastic, because the paper bags are already made from recycled paper.

You can use your paper bags to recycle your newspapers, magazines and cardboard and you can bring your paper bags to the grocery store and reuse them as well.

They may not last as long as the new recycled plastic bags from the stores, but they are better than those awful plastic bags we see scattered along the landscape.

A third option and also worth considering is using fabric totes made from cotton, hemp and polyester.

However, cotton takes a lot of pesticides and water to produce, polyester is another man made chemical based fiber, so bags made from industrial hemp would be my choice for a fabric tote.

So next time you head to the store, take your plastic bags and recycle them in the recycle bins, bring your paper bags and get yourself a stash of recycled plastic shopping bags to use for your shopping needs.

You will be eco-chic, reducing your carbon footprint, and saving millions of barrels of oil, cleaning up our environment and doing the planet a HUGE benefit… and just think, you will do all that by not using plastic shopping bags!

Of course, I resonated with the message and it made perfect sense to me. If I want to attract the right client for my company, I must be clear and define “why” I do what I do, what I believe, my passion, my mission and vision of my company. When that is clear and defined, then the clients who relate to those same beliefs and passions will then connect with me and my company.

I took that information, re-examined my entire marketing plan and revamped how I communicated the message about me and my business. I also found a common thread with the new social media platforms that were coming along and found the key ingredient in both is ” building relationships”

Fast forward to June 5, 2009, when my same sister sent me an email about a wonderful opportunity she discovered regarding a great winery in Sonoma County, called Murphy-Goode and how they were looking for a “Wine Country Lifestyle Correspondent”. Someone who knows how to use Web 2.0, social media and all the latest and greatest tools to communicate the message about Murphy-Goode and the Sonoma County Wine Country lifestyle.

One thing that I didn’t  tell my sister was that I already knew about the Murphy-Goode Winery. I visited the winery in 1995, tasted wines, did a tour and shipped home several cases of wine. I even bought a sweatshirt that I still wear, it’s black so if I spill wine, you can’t tell.

When I looked at the home page of the Murphy-Goode Winery and read the first paragraph, I realized, “wow, these guys have defined the “why” of their business, right there on the first page. I thought, “how cool is this” and they want a social media whiz to work for six months as their correspondent, using social media, “which is about building relationships” to move into the new age of communications.

So I thought for a moment and realized “I am just the right person for this position”. I am passionate about wine, food, life and social media. I am a consumate networker, love working with people, have an amazing ability to find the common threads and weave them together to create new relationships and last but not least, have a Murphy-Goode sweatshirt to take with me when I report to work as a member of their new crew, on August 15,2009.

So I have submitted my application and video. Now  I am asking everyone I know and even those that I don’t know yet, to go online to www.murphygoodewinery.comand vote for me. My video is one of the new ones listed. It is “Lita A Loesch-Cox from Cottonwood, AZ”. Keep your fingers crossed, see me getting the job and have a glass of Murphy-Goode wine for me as good luck!

Cheers!

EcoLita...who is the Ecodiva

Do you want to find out? Please join us on September 9, 2009 (09/09/09) on Twitter and share your thoughts via video, pictures and blogs about what peace and compassion means to you.

Follow us on Twitter: @BecomePeace2009

Here’s a little bit of background about BecomePeace 090909 and why we want you to participate!

Here’s Lita (aka EcoDiva on Twitter) talking about why we chose September 9, 2009 for this event.

We would like for you to list in our comments (until we can figure out a better way to do this) where you’re going to be tweeting about peace, love and compassion on September 9, 2009 so we can retweet it on Twitter. If you are hosting a music event on that day, let us know. If you’re raising money for an animal charity on this day, tell us about it. Lots of tweeting going on already. Give us your Youtube, Ustream, Twitter contacts so we can get the word out there about what you’ve decided to do.

Someone asked us, Is it possible that we can get over one million people following @BecomePeace2009 and tweeting about peace, love and compassion on this day? We believe in thinking big and shooting for the stars so our answer is “yes”. Just imagine the possibilities. Namaste.