Chances are you’re already using some kind of reusable shopping bag when you hit the grocery store during your Saturday errands. The carryalls by Anya Hindmarch, Beau Soleil, and Envirosax are practically ubiquitous, and it’s an easy and stylish shift for a ecologically minded consumer to make.

However, when it comes to shopping outside the grocery store, shoppers aren’t nearly so consistent. Shopping bags, cardboard boxes used to ship online purchases, bubble wrap, tissue paper, and packing tape all contribute mightily to the 230 million tons of trash thrown away in the United States annually, more than 70 percent of which is reusable or recyclable.

But unfortunately, as a society we’re bad at remembering to sort our garbage. Paper shopping bags can be recycled, but it’s best not to use them in the first place. They pack a double whammy in that their production emits toxic gases and cuts down the trees capable of removing those emissions from the atmosphere.

Plastic shopping bags are far more common. More than 100 billion plastic bags are thrown away by Americans every year; less than 5 percent are recycled. Discarding them eventually won’t be an option as the Environmental Protection Agency reports that some landfills have already started closing because they are full or polluting groundwater that runs underneath the mountains of trash.

Some initiatives have already been implemented to varying degrees of success. This year alone, the plastics industry has stared down 400 pieces of legislation designed to reduce plastic production. As of January 1, Seattle will tax plastic bags at 20 cents a pop.

Not everything can be blamed on plastic, however. It’s true that it doesn’t break down in landfills, but it’s lighter and stronger than glass or paper packaging — which means it creates less waste and requires less energy to ship long distances.

Still, not everything needs to be wrapped in plastic to be shipped. And with online shopping expanding every year, shipping is something to consider. According to a 2001 study from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, when car travel by shoppers to retail destinations is factored in, online shopping is actually greener than conventional shopping, despite Internet commerce’s reliance on air transportation.

Amazon.com is the United States’ largest online retailer, with revenue nearing $15-billion in 2007. Recognizing its position as an industry leader, the company has taken several steps to reduce packaging waste. According to its “Amazon.com and the Environment” page, its fulfillment center uses software to automatically determine the smallest size box to fit an order. It also uses cardboard boxes constructed from 43 percent recovered fiber and packing paper that’s made from 50 percent recycled content. Furthermore, everything Amazon.com uses to ship items can be recycled.

Paperboard (such as the material used to make shoeboxes) and cardboard are easily recycled, but again, it happens less often than is possible because of lax consumer habits. But perhaps making recycling easier on and profitable for people makes it more likely to succeed. Upstarts like EcoBox.com and UsedCardboardBoxes.com collect postconsumer waste, even offering to buy and pick up used boxes for resale to people looking to move for cheap.

Bubble wrap, made from polyethylene, and foam peanuts, which are polystyrene, are both troublesome polluters if not recycled. If burned, they emit toxic fumes, and if landfilled, they leach chemicals into the ground. A newer ecologically friendly kind of packing peanut, made from grain sorghum and cornstarch, is totally biodegradable — it even melts in water.

After all this information, the “recycle” refrain starts to wear thin so the alternative solution is to forgo the bag whenever possible, whether that means bringing that same trendy grocery bag even to the mall or stashing a lipstick in a purse (that is, after paying at the register).