Paper or plastic? Neither

Whole Foods Market created a sensation last year with its $15 “designer” reusable shopping bags. Why stop there? Stella McCartney is selling a grocery bag for $465 and Hermes has one for $960.

This story is a few months old, but I bring it up now because yesterday I saw a woman shopping my Central Market with her Chanel grocery bag stuffed with containers of barbecued chicken wings.

Paper or plastic -- which is better for the environment? You probably think you know the answer. And you’re probably wrong.

“There definitely was a period of time when the message was, ‘Choose paper over plastic,’” Jenny Powers, a spokeswoman for the Natural Resources Defense Council, told San Francisco Chronicle. “That’s not the way to view it.”

Powers and other environmental experts now say the best choice is neither paper nor plastic -- it’s reusable shopping bags made of substances like cotton, hemp, nylon or durable meshlike plastic.

“The ideal option is bring your own bag,” Powers said. “Second choice is to ask for the type of bag that you know will be reused -- plastic if you’ll use it for holding trash, or paper if you will recycle it.”