This "phasing out of plastic bags" is the result of a remarkably conceived and executed marketing conspiracy mounted by the American Paper Institute and the Paper Bag Institute going back to the 1960s, and is well documented here. Follow the money.
Additional participants included the Glass Packaging Institute, the aluminum industry trade association, the General Federation of Women's Clubs (really; read the linked documentary evidence which was originally created on request for the Federal Trade Commission), the Environmental Defense Fund, Greenpeace, the late (self-proclaimed; read his books) socialist professor Barry Commoner, and an assortment of other parties who viewed all things plastic as a COMMERCIAL, NOT ENVIRONMENTAL, industry competitor and disrupter of then traditional materials markets and competitor revenues.
Any questions, please message me.