If you don’t live in San Francisco, where plastic grocery bags have been banned, you may still be facing that choice of paper or plastic at the checkout.

Personally, I bring my own canvas bag, or opt for paper. The inherently biodegradable paper bags get reused as garbage bags.

If you do have some plastic bags lying around or have a steady stream of them coming in, here’s a great resource for info about plastic bags, suggestions on how to reduce and reuse them, and where to recycle them (if your local store doesn’t already collect them back).

21st Century Citizen: 25 Resources to reduce, recycle and reuse plastic grocery bags

Speaking of bags, here’s a tip for upcoming holiday gift wrap. Yesterday I was talking with a reporter for a story about “Green Christmas” and we were talking about giving reusable bags as holiday gifts. She remarked that many of the big stores are now selling their own reusable bags with their logo on them. She had already purchased her husband’s Christmas gift at Home Depot and will be wrapping it in their reusable bag with the Home Depot logo. A great idea for reusable gift wrap.