There is no doubt in my mind that this anti plastic bag thing is just another cost cutting, profit based idea and nothing to do with social conscience.
The stores who supplied the bags are riding on the usual left/green hype and hysteria.
The damage caused by these bags is nothing compared to the over-reach the greens are pushing to make their point.
The truth is that the deaths (of wildlife) caused by plastic is minimal, but when it does happen it is played up by all the marshmellows like the greens and their elk.
Everyone has an agenda.
The greens have to keep making mountains out of mole hills or their cred will quickly wean.
The shops have to keep fine tuning their greed.
Meanwhile the sheeple are all bumping into each other telling each other what a great idea it is to remove plastic from circulation.
The opinion of the few of us with a fully functioning brain and not swayed by politics and emotion, and certainly not part of the pathetic public or sheeple, is that there is and always has been an answer to this so called problem.
It has been around since the invention of plastic, but was not fully accepted by industry, and I don't know why.
Maybe one of you brainiacs can answer this one?
Anyway the solution which has been around for decades is 'degradable' plastic.
It used to be that the very same bags we have been using when shopping at major grocery stores, used to break down almost immediately and within days was just a little smattering of very fragile plastic dust and what fragments were still intact would quickly crumble and disintegrate into dust if any attempt was made to touch or pick them up.
If memory serves, it was the sheeple who complained that the bags were not 'fit for purpose', and so the stores complied by getting the manufacturer to make them more sound thereby complying with the sheeples demands.
So then they could go on to re-use them for another purpose.
Recycle maybe?
Yeah, right.

This thread to me at least proves it is getting harder to do the right thing, rubbish in the sea and rivers, paddocks and roads is a problem, but look closely at the claims it is a green/left tree huger conspiracy! yes we the consumers are about to be slugged again, and yes SOME green types drive these things, but recycle and re use are needed things,my point is these new bags are nothing other than an imposed cost, that many will end up on the road sides and in land fill, taking even longer to rot, some one out there may become a millionaire, by inventing a better way,paper bags or the very old string bags may be that way,replacing plastic with plastic is not

Belly,
You're right, it's all about money. I always shudder when I think of the waste that is produced by hospitals. It is nothing short of insane. Just consider the waste from treating drug abusers, it's mind boggling but none-of the Greenies ever turn around & denounce drug abuse. Why not ? Because most of them them fall into the category of drug use. I have yet to meet a Greenie that doesn't openly support Marijuana & that's the only one they admit to using. Then you have stupidity related accident treatment, more often than not repeatedly. Nappies are another severe pollutant. There's hardly anything in our daily life that doesn't revolve in one way or another around plastic, most of frivolous. Just look at some of the plastic toys, why does the Dept of Environment permit the importation ? You guessed it, $$$.
Many, many years ago I saw a documentary about the beauty industry & the pollution it caused. It was nothing short of frightening. Literally everything humans do revolves around waste & subsequent pollution, most of it utterley unnecessary. I shall refrain from psychological/mental pollution at this stage.

When I was still trying to bread show jumpers I used to have to supplement the mares & foals with calcium for bone development, critical for jumpers. You need phosphorus with calcium for absorption by the horse.

Rather than big bags which tended to go hard in my open front feed shed, I bought a couple of kilos at a time of powdered supplies from the produce store in guess what. Yes plastic shopping bags.

Now down the back of the feed shed, where I mixed the stuff into molasses behind the bales of Lucerne it is pretty dark. No sun ever gets into there, & nothing like full light.

A couple of times when I had washed the containers I stored these powders in, & forgotten to bring them back, I stored the stuff in those plastic bags. Big mistake. Even In the reduced light of the shed the bags has suffered ultra violet degradation in less than 4 weeks, & started to fall apart.

Hang one on a fence in full light, & they are breaking down in way less than a month, & have disappeared into the dirt in 2 months.

If your academics don't know this Foxy, it is time to find some new academics, not packaging.

Hasbeen not a chance I or most thinking people will find any common sense in that post,stop along the road to your next jump event, walk just a few yards, you will find far more junk than you wish, another post I put forward the view a job for every one could be found, in addition, to current efforts just cleaning up after us could keep hundreds of thousands around the world in work forever.we nearly need a chain saw to get some things out of the packet these days, and any beach, any place in the world, after a big sea is all the evidence you ever need to support some thing better

Royal Auto Magazine, the latest issue, Vol. 86,
No. 6, July 2018 - has an article on page 30 -
"War on Plastic ."

It tells us that close to half a million single-use
plastic bags end up in Australian landfill every hour.
Every hour.

A staggering 13 million plastic bags are used across
the country daily. And, each year 50 million plastic
bags approx. two for each member of our population
end up in Australia's waterways.

The figures are staggering and momentum is gathering
against them.

Queensland and Western Australia will ban single-use plastic
bags from 1st July, bringing them into line with the ACT,
South Australia, and Tasmania where similar bans exist.
Victoria committed to a ban last year with a commencement date
for this year yet to be announced. New South Wales has not
committed to a ban.

"There is strong scientific evidence pointing to the significant
impact plastic bags present to the environment , including risks
to marine life and pollution of waterways," says Simon Mikedis,
RACV's Manager of environmental sustainability.

"Being non-biodegradable, the bags just become smaller and
smaller toxic pieces of plastic which often lead to ingestion
by animals low on the food chain," says Simon.

The flow-on effect can be deadly for larger mammals.

Earlier this year a sperm whale was found washed up on a Spanish
beach with almost 30 kilograms of rubbish, including plastic bags,
blocking its digestive system.

Plastic bags take between 400 and 1000 years to break down, and
Simon says this lengthy process can cause "major issues due to
chemical leaching and animal ingestion."

The success of a legislated ban has been demonstrated in the
ACT, where lightweight bags have been banned since 2011.
A review in 2014 found it had contributed to 36 per cent drop
in the number of plastic bags going to landfill.

Anyway, the article is worth a read for those interested in
the facts.