What do you think of banning the plastic bags used by grocery and other stores?

They have been banned by at least one state in Australia and also in individual towns. At first it sounds like a good idea but this was in this morning’s paper. “The sales of bin liners (waste basket liners) in SA have doubled since a ban was imposed on free plastic shopping bags more than two years ago. And most bin bags are made of thicker plastic than traditional shopping bags, which means they take longer to break down in the environment.” It goes on to say the 2 major supermarket chains had huge increases in sales of bags and a manufacturer, Glad, had a 52.5 per cent jump in SA compared with a 5.5 per cent increase nationally.

Seems as if it might be another one of those ideas that initially sound like an environmentally good move, but have unforeseen consequences.

What are your thoughts?