The humble cotton tote bag has become something of a fashion item, one that sends the message that certain brands are eco-conscious, but they are not as good for the environment as we think, says ...

If you only look at the climate change impact category—which is measured in kilograms of CO2 emissions—the reuse number for two organic cotton tote bags drops to 149, or 74.5 for one.

But tote bags have a high carbon footprint, too. In fact, reusing a single plastic bag three times has the same environmental impact as using a cotton tote bag 393 times.

Still, in all these life cycles assessment studies, plastic bags do seem to be “more green” than cotton tote bags. That’s because cotton requires lots of land, water, and fertilizers to grow ...