When you're shopping at the grocery store and you hear the words paper or plastic, having a plan in mind of how you're going to dispose of them is essential to reducing your carbon footprint. Picking paper over plastic, bringing your own grocery bags and disposing of your plastic bags in the proper receptacle will help keep the material out of landfills and create a greener environment.

While plastic bags are a great convenience, they remain toxic when they break down and have contributed to much of the pollution all around the world. According to ReUseIt.com, a single plastic bag can take over 1,000 years to degrade. Simply put, when you throw away your plastic bags, they will linger in landfills for the foreseeable future.

If you must use plastic bags, the best course of action is to set aside the spent bags and remove all unnecessary material from them before storage. Many grocery stores have bins to recycle these old bags, so take advantage of them! It will only take a few minutes to do the right thing for the environment, and you'll feel a lot better about your impact on the planet when you do.

Reusable shopping bags are the ideal choice and they have caught on recently as an effective way of cutting down common waste products. Grocery stores sell their own bags that are inexpensive and many grocers will offer discounts for customers that use these bags.

Living a more sustainable lifestyle starts with making some quick changes to your everyday routine. By recycling old bags, opting for paper or bringing your own reusable bags, you will do your part to help create a greener community.