Lettuce delve into the wide world of reusable shopping bags, meaning those increasingly de rigueur totes made of spun polypropylene, recycled or organic materials. They ostensibly replace plastic grocery bags, scourge and polluter of the Earth. If you'd like to know just how they mess things up, beyond clogging landfills, trees, waterways and even your lowly under-the-sink cupboard, do the briefest Internet search. It is quite sickening.

Some cities have even banned them; Seattle voters next month will decide whether to keep a 20-cent-per-disposable-bag assessment approved by its city council last year and forced by petition to a referendum. The fee would be assessed on paper bags, too.

There are a bazillion ways to avoid the bags. I disclose that I'm still learning to be a good scout on this account. I have enough reusable bags, for sure; I'm trying to remember to bring them with me when I shop.

And yes -- you can say "nyah, nyah -- your newspaper is delivered in a plastic bag." I recycle them, and as many other plastic bags, as I can.

In certain city neighborhoods, hanging a reusable bag on your fist is almost required. One of the Post-Gazette's interns wrote recently of her shame at not having one while shopping at the Shadyside Giant Eagle. A few blocks down Centre Avenue, Whole Foods doesn't use plastic bags anymore, just brown paper ones, so for many customers, it's BYOB or buy one of theirs.

For fun, my daughter and I shopped for reusable bags one recent day to see what sort of unusual totes we could find. We hit the mall.

Far and away, those at Forever XXI were the snappiest. Colorful, conveniently sized (approximately 11 by 13 inches) and relatively inexpensive ($1.50 to $1.75 each), they will brighten up your shopping excursions. Our fave is a blue one with a whale, on whose spout it says, "Make waves, not waste." A bright green one has a caricature of the Earth talking to a bird, who says, "Let's be friends."

Dick's Sporting Goods had a few smaller bags, but we liked the large ones with sports logos. When we say large, we mean large: about 21 inches by 22 inches. Seems unwieldy, but they're good for bulky-but-light grocery items, such as chip bags, paper towels or toilet paper. Good for lugging stuff to college, too.

Should you prefer to make even a greater fashion statement while helping the environment, check clothing stores. For about $15 to $20, you can invest in a canvas tote big enough to hold two days' groceries, your keys and wallet. Availability and prices may vary from what we found, because summer sales abound.

Banana Republic carries 100-percent cotton bags with lively blue-and-red batik prints ($16.99). At Express, cotton totes in black and white, and red and blue prints were marked down from $24.50 to $9.99. Smaller, lined totes were found at Claire's marked down from $16 to $11; one with piano keys on it was $20. American Eagle had canvas totes bearing "Peace and Happiness" and a groovy purple butterfly marked down from $12.50 to $6.95. Our favorite in the fashion-statement totes category, also at American Eagle, was a roomy, green-and-white floral canvas tote, marked down from $39.50 to $14.95. We circled it three times before buying. Couldn't resist.

Our shopping trip ended with a stop at Aldi, where we employed our new bags, and then stopped dead in our tracks at checkout. There it was. The granddaddy of all reusable bags.

The 20-inches-wide, 16-inches-tall bag has a plastic insert to protect the bottom, grommets reinforcing the carry straps and is 10 inches deep ($1.99). "It's all about saving green," says the bag, with a tree on the front.

We filled it to the brim and went home feeling fashionable, eco-friendly and like we found a true bargain.