Those 99 cent reusable shopping bags that you can buy in the supermarkets and big-box stores look nice with their brightly-colored "fabric". They're also a great impulse buy, positioned right at the checkout lines.

Sure, reusing these non-woven polypropylene (plastic) bags is better than taking the filmy plastic bags and throwing them out right away. But what's going to happen when they get torn up by the kids or family dog, break, or just plain get thrown out?

I ran across a letter to the editor of a local Maryland newspaper where the writer advocates reusable shopping bags for all of the right reasons, but I'm left to wonder if she ever took a look at the label of her nice orange bag. She might be disappointed at what she reads.

Being "Green" has no real definition, but some practices are definitely "greener" than others. If you already have a bunch of synthetic totes sitting in the closet, by all means put them to use until they fall apart at the seams! But we really don't know the impact the non-woven polypropylene type will have on the environment once they start hitting the landfills.