It still boggles my mind that people laych onto those plastic bags as an issue. They're almost the perfect disposable product. They weigh about 5 grams each, yet will hold around 15 pounds of stuff. It takes a fraction of the energy to make one as is needed to make a paper bag. In a landfill, they take up far less volume than a paper bag. You don't waste water and energy washing them, compared to reuseable bags. The average person uses a total of 5 pounds of plastic bags per year. A single gallon of gasoline is 6 pounds. The majority of people reuse them for lunch bags, pet waste, garbage, etc. Replace them with reusable fabric bags, lunch bags, etc, all which need to be cleaned, and while there is probably a bit of a net benefit, it's trivial compared to other ignored ways to save.
Save 2 gallons of gasoline in a year - would have just as much of a net impact. Think of all the consumer products that are designed for a relatively short lifespan... Just one of these products per year would have an even bigger impact. 40 years ago, a family might have a television for a decade or longer. Now, hey, the 50" is on sale, so let's replace the 4 year old 32" television. Tons of products are replaced not because they're broken and can't be fixed, but because bigger and better is available.
Speaking of repairable, our mindset and culture has been changed to perceive that it's too expensive to repair things - it's not in the manufacturers' interests that you can repair their products. Why do individual parts cost 3/4 the cost of a brand new item? Because manufacturers don't want you to fix them - and our culture accepts that. We live in a throwaway culture and of all the things to worry about, people are worried about the plastic bags that all the stuff we're going to throw out was brought home in.
I hate plastic bag bans. Plastic bags are reusable, and recyclable - though not in the usual recycling places.
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