A reader sent a link to this Christian Science Monitor story about the old grocery-bag dilemma getting renewed attention around the world. And guess what. Plastic is losing. Actually, paper doesn’t come out looking too good either. Cotton seems the clear winner.

The plastic bags take hundreds of years to decompose and each year they’re blamed for killing thousands of sea turtles and other ocean creatures that mistake them for tasty jellyfish. They’re one of the common items collected during beach cleanups along the Maine coast. And now the bags are getting maligned as contributors to global warming, too.

Governments have begun banning them or taxing them in some parts of the world. European activists say they plan to make it “as fashionable to carry plastic as it is to wear fur.” And, if reusable canvas becomes the hot new shopping accessory in London, it might not be long before styles change in supermarket aisles here.

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