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It’s an everyday conundrum, a question we’re all asked once, twice, maybe several times a week:

“Paper or plastic?”

How about, “Neither, I’ve got my own”?

Turns out what was once the token accouterment of a Birkenstock-wearing few has become the latest fashion accessory.

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Cobb’s site, which has been around since 2003, sells more than 150 different kinds of reusable grocery bags, because studies have shown both paper and plastic take their toll on the environment.

Paper bags, for instance, often thought to be the “right” choice, actually require 40 percent more energy to manufacture than plastic bags, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; they also require 91 percent more energy to recycle, pound for pound.As for plastic bags, 500 billion to 1 trillion are consumed annually worldwide. Consequently, they rank as one of the 10 most common trash items along the American coast and pose serious health hazards to sea animals who accidentally ingest them, mistaking them for jellyfish.

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Last year, the city of San Francisco banned nonbiodegradable plastic bags from being distributed at all large supermarkets, as well as smaller chain stores (including Rite Aid and Longs). The stores can now only offer recyclable paper bags, reusable bags or compostable “bio-plastic” bags made of cornstarch or potato starch.

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“We don’t think bans are the right approach,” said Keith Christman, senior director of packaging for the Plastics Division of the American Chemistry Council, an organization representing plastic-bag manufacturers. “Bans will result in a switch to alternative materials; the likely switch is to paper. If you switch to paper, it doubles energy use, doubles greenhouse gas emissions and water use.”

Furthermore, he said, surveys have shown that 92 percent of Americans reuse their plastic bags as trash can liners, lunch bags and for pet waste pickup – which saves new bags from being made for those purposes.

But Cobb maintains that the problem isn’t using disposable bags; it’s wasting them.

“It doesn’t matter that it’s paper or plastic; it matters that you use it and you toss it,” Cobb said. “The problem is the mindless overconsumption of use-and-toss items.”

The fashion world is on his side. In the past couple of years, reusable shopping bags have earned a celebrity chic status.

British designer Anya Hindmarch’s “I’m Not A Plastic Bag” unbleached cotton bag, for instance, sold out on the day of its release last year, with some shoppers lining up as early as 4 a.m. to get their hands on the $15 tote.

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If you don’t mind shelling out $960, Hermes has its Silky Pop grocery bag made of hand-wrought silk. The bag collapses into a wallet-size calfskin pouch.

Other designer shopping bags include Castiglioni’s foldable nylon bag, which retails for $843, and Stella McCartney’s organic canvas shopper, $495.

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Trader Joe’s sells a variety of reusable bags for less than $3. Upping the incentive to reuse: Customers who use any reusable grocery bag at Trader Joe’s can enter the store’s monthly lottery to win $50 worth of free groceries.

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Some bags have double do-gooding incentives.

The West Los Angeles clothing boutique Intuition (www.shopintuiton.com) donates $35 from the sale of every $85-$100 Market bag to the International Rescue Committee.

And, proceeds from the natural burlap and canvas FEED (The Children of the World) bag, designed by presidential niece Lauren Bush, benefit the U.N.’s World Food Program.

“We tried to make it a dual purpose in helping the kids who are hungry and also using fewer plastic bags,” said Ellen Gustafson, Bush’s partner in FEED Projects. “If we sell 500,000 bags, we’ll be able to feed all the kids in Rwanda’s school feeding program in 2008.”

And really: You can’t get that with a disposable bag.

Variety of reusable market bags at Whole Foods Market in El Segundo. (Brad Graverson/Staff Photographer)