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Banning or charging fees for plastic bags at the check-out counter could be having unintended consequences.

Maui, Kauai and the Big Island have already banned the bags that environmentalists say are a menace to marine life and the city of Honolulu is considering following suit. Fed up with state lawmakers failing to come through with their own legislation, council members are debating imposing fees on the bags.

But the plastic bag bans on the neighbor islands are proving to increase the use of paper bags which have their own environmental impacts, according to records that show stores are paying more for paper bags.

Paper bags are more detrimental to the environment than plastic when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions, acid rain, water consumption and ozone formation at the ground level, according to a 2010 study conducted by , and commissioned by , an environmental advocacy group.

On Kauai and Maui, retailers are paying about $30,000 more every year to cover the costs of increases in paper bag use, according to Melissa Pavlicek, a spokeswoman for Safeway and Times Supermarket stores. She said there was no data available on the percentage increase in paper bags. On the Big Island, the ban is set to take effect in 2013.

Supporters of flailing statewide legislation that would address both bag types, say that the county measures fall short when it comes to the environment and that it’s important that the state pass . The legislation would impose 10-cent fees on both paper and plastic bags. While the bill has garnered strong support in the Senate, key members in the House have thrown up roadblocks to its passage this year. It faces a full floor vote in the Senate on Tuesday before being passed back to the House.

“Plainly, having a switch to renewable bags is everyone’s end game,” said Robert Harris, executive director of the Sierra Club, which has been a big backer of the statewide measure. “There are definitely environmental impacts for both.”

He added that while paper bags can be worse for the environment in certain ways, plastic bags are particularly bad for regions such as Hawaii.

They’ve been found to be much worse when it comes to harming marine animals. Whales, sea turtles, sea birds, seals and dolphins have been known to ingest them, causing choking or infection, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Paper versus plastic, is an issue Californians have grappled with for a number of years. Forty-one jurisdictions now have ordinances addressing single-use bag use, according to Green Cities California, that says Californians throw away more than 600 plastic bags per second.

The group has pushed for a ban on both plastic and paper.

“The point is plastics are extremely detrimental to the environment and paper is extremely detrimental for the environment,” said Carol Misseldine, coordinator for Green Cities California. “There is no justification for single-use paper or plastic. There’s no justification for single-use anything.”

Harris said that if the state didn’t pass legislation this year addressing both paper and plastic, then the Sierra Club would be back at the Legislature next year.