When faced with the option of paper or plastic, which do you choose? Hopefully, you hand over your own reusable bag. But if you’ve forgotten to bring it, which do you pick?

For the longest time, I thought paper was the better option. While both do a number on the environment, it turns out that paper does more damage.

Plastic bags are made from polyethylene, which is mostly natural gas.

Paper bags, on the other hand, are made out of trees – lots of them. They also require lots of resources to turn the wood into wood pulp and then paper.

Plasticbagrecycling.org reports that plastic bags produce less carbon dioxide than paper bags, use less water, and create less dominant waste.

While paper bags require more resources to make, they can be recycled into natural materials. And the American Forest and Paper Association reports that in 2007, 56 percent of paper used in the U.S. was recycled.

Polyethylene does not return to an organic state once recycled. Instead, those plastic bags can be melted and made into other products, like composite decking.

Many grocery stores now have bins out in front accepting plastic bags for recycling. According plasticbagrecycling.org, in 2006 812 million pounds of plastic film and bags were recycled. That’s a 24 percent increase from 2005. That number is based on a report by the American Chemistry Council.

If you are presented with the question paper or plastic, I suggest you say, “Neither,” and hand over your own re-usable bag. Some stores will give you up to 5 cents off your purchase per bag, while other stores will charge you for each of their plastic bags that you use.

If you’ve forgotten your bags, why not do without the bag for that trip? Or look into finding one of those reusable bags that can be folded up  and attached to your purse or key chain?

Seems pretty obvious, right? I mean, why not use a reusable grocery bag instead of the paper and plastic ones that are wreaking havoc on our environment? Besides the fact that they usually cost 99 cents each, I can’t figure out why more people don’t. Anyway, here are 10 reasons that’ll have you shelling out the cash to go reusable, for good:

1. The average person uses 350 bags a year
2. In NYC alone, if each person used one less bag there would be a 5 million pound reduction in waste heading to the landfills, and $250,000 would in disposal fees would be saved
3. Reusable bags save more than 700 regular bags over the span of their lifetime
4. Carrying around a reusable bag is a sexy fashion statement. Don’t believe me? Troll around town carting a reusable bag full of stuff under your arm. You might also want to bring a stick with you, to beat away the throngs of admirers that will surely chase after you
5. The recipe for making the pulp for paper bags is 1 part pulp mixed to 400 parts water. It doesn’t get much more wasteful than that! Speaking of stats, here’s another one: In 1999 more than 14 million trees were cut down to produce 10 billion paper bags that were used by Americans that year
6. A plastic bag takes 450 years to biodegrade. Think about it, the bags you cart your food home in today will still be around in 18 generations. Are those the kind of family heirlooms you want to leave behind?
7. When the plastic grocery bags “photo degrade”, they end up in oceans. From there, they float around looking like delicious plankton until fish eat them. Then, fishermen catch the fish, which you buy at a grocery store and then take home in another plastic bag to complete the cycle (ta daaa!). So, think of that the next time your kid tells you that your cooking smells a little funky.

Buying and using reusable bags won’t set you back a lot of cash and it’s a total no-brainer thing to do. It’s probably one of the easiest ways to significantly reduce your carbon footprint over time.