DALLAS (April 15, 2009)— More than 238,000 acres of trees were lost or damaged in 29 Texas counties during Hurricane Ike, prompting Keep Texas Beautiful and Half Price Books to create the "Replant Texas" initiative to help purchase and plant trees to replace those lost in the storm.

Half Price Books is donating 10 cents from every sale of its exclusive reusable tote bags, which retail for 98 cents. The company committed to donate a minimum of $15,000 to launch the program, which was presented to Keep Texas Beautiful earlier this month. There are six different bag designs to choose from, and purchases made at any of the 39 Texas Half Price Books stores will benefit the "Replant Texas" program.

"After the hurricane, we received many calls from our affiliates in the Southeast Texas area expressing their sadness about the loss of all the trees. The 'Replant Texas' program is the beginning of a long road to recovery, and we're excited that Half Price Books has helped jumpstart the effort," said Cathie Gail, executive director of Keep Texas Beautiful.

Half Price Books designed the program to benefit Texas in two ways: along with replanting trees, the company is taking an active stand through its B(eco)me Bagless campaign to reduce plastic bag use among its customers, and hopefully help change consumer habits to decrease plastic bag use at all shopping venues. The average person uses 336 single-use bags a year and an estimated 4 billion bags end up as litter each year.

"It's our hope that this program will provide an outlet for Texans to help regenerate areas in the state washed away by Ike, and will also bring to their attention the litter and landfill problem that plastic bags create," said Kathy Doyle Thomas, executive vice president for Half Price Books.

Half Price Books is the largest family-owned new and used bookstore chain with more than 100 retail locations in 15 states. Stores are open seven days a week and buy and sell new and used books, magazines, comics, records, CDs, DVDs and collectible items. Half Price Books has been dedicated to environmental and literacy efforts for 36 years and supports hundreds of local, national and international programs. Each year the company sponsors the Half Pint Library Book Drive at each of its stores, donating thousands of books to hospitals and clinics throughout the United States. Half Price Books is a founding contributor to Laura Bush's National Book Festival, a continuing supporter of the National Center for Family Literacy, and the founder of the environmental website BecomeGreen.org. For more information about Half Price Books, its store locations and corporate initiatives, please visit www.halfpricebooks.com.