Grocery store baggers (when you can find them) always ask shoppers if they want paper or plastic. Earth-conscious consumers choose paper.

The reason they do, and the reason some cities are considering bans on plastic bags, is to protect the environment. There's a growing movement that could force more consumers to take paper bags, supply their own bags or else pay a hefty price for plastic, which are all good ideas.

Usually consumers can find multiple ways to reuse and recycle plastic bags. But even the most determined recycler gets annoyed about plastic bags, which seem to multiply in kitchen pantries. However, they are wreaking far more havoc than that. They are littering the landscape, clogging waterways and threatening wildlife.

The burden plastic imposes reaches beyond the environment. It takes 12 million barrels of oil to make the 100 billion plastic bags distributed every year. Considering that it takes plastic 1,000 years to biodegrade, it makes sense to use more paper.

No wonder more cities are taking action. Annapolis, Md., is entertaining a proposal to keep retail stores from using plastic bags in order to protect marine life. It would force stores to offer consumers recycled bags -- not a bad idea. Anyone who fails to take plastic bags to the store for reuse would simply get paper bags. San Francisco has enacted a ban for some stores, and Boston, Baltimore and Portland, Ore., are considering measures.

But there are other ways to convince consumers to get on the right side of this issue. Some stores are taking more persuasive action by charging customers a fee for plastic bags. At least one grocer gives a 3-cent credit for every plastic bag customers return. The Giant Eagle chain, for one, sells light brown, canvas-type bags that customers can use and reuse there or elsewhere.

Not surprisingly, there are critics. Some want communities merely to toughen enforcement of litter laws. Good idea, until you have to figure out who to fine for stray bags. And sure, paper bags cost a nickel to produce, more than double the cost of plastic.

But choosing based strictly on price falls under the category of being penny-wise and pound-foolish, and Mother Earth surely knows better.