They are the unwelcome souvenirs from a trip to the grocery store: plastic bags. Your options on how to dispose of them are limited, and the fact remains it will take 10 to 12 years for each one to decompose.

And then there's that dingy canvas bag purchased during one of your greener moments. The tote is meant to be an alternative to paper or plastic, yet it spends more time crumpled in a closet than it does transporting groceries. You conveniently forget it every time you head to the store, but who can blame you?

Thanks to a recent host of bag designers, however, being an environmentally savvy shopper doesn't have to mean leaving your style at the grocery store door. The latest reusable shopping totes are as fashionable as they are eco-friendly and offer chic alternatives to their bland cotton counterparts. Bags come in a range of designs and prices, so whether you're on a budget or willing to spend some green to go green, it's never been trendier to say no to plastic.

"The increase in popularity has been gradual, but people have for sure been buying these kinds of bags more in our store," said Elizabeth Wilson, operations manager at the Roanoke Natural Foods Co-op, which sells a variety of reusable bags. "I think there is truly an overall awareness, from the youngest up ... about our planet and what is renewable and what's not."

Eco-friendly fashionistas might be drawn to Stella McCartney's sequined organic cotton tote ($495), or the Hermes Silky Pop, a hand-wrought silk bag that folds into a wallet-sized calfskin pouch ($960). The bags will make their U.S. debut this summer.

Designer Anya Hindmarch's cotton "I'm not a Plastic Bag" tote is undoubtedly the "it" bag on the market now. The bag is sold out on Hindmarch's Web site, but those determined to get their hands on one have reportedly paid 10 times its original price of $15 on eBay.

The eye-popping Basura bag is a colorful collage of recycled chip packages picked from the streets of Honduras. Gecko Traders' totes are made in Cambodia from recycled rice and feed bags. The patchwork designs are individually handcrafted by underprivileged women who use the profits from the bags to get back on their feet.

The BYOB (bring-your-own-bag) trend is not only a personal choice.

In March, San Francisco became the first major U.S. city to implement a ban on the use of nonbiodegradable plastic bags in supermarkets.

Many stores in Europe have begun offering rewards and discounts for those who bring their own bag. Others go as far as to charge customers the for paper and plastic bags they use.

While Roanoke doesn't prohibit plastic bag use, some local stores are finding ways to encourage customers to be eco-friendly. All Kroger stores, for instance, have plastic bag-recycling bins.

Another retailer has even taken the European approach.

"We give every person who brings their own bag a piece of honey sesame candy," said Sylvia Rosenfeld, manager of Annie Kay's Main Street Market in Radford. "We want to make it easier to put 'reduce, reuse and recycle' into practice for the environment, for the planet. It's actually been met with some excitement."