Plastic bags are horrible things.  They hurt sealife.  They are a petroleum product.  They are unneccessary.  No, I don't think you should switch to paper bags but to reusable cloth bags.  Ireland passed a law that charged customers 33 cents per plastic bag at checkout.  The result was that within weeks plastic bag usage dropped 94%. 

We lived without them before.  We need to stop being such a wasteful, throwaway society and look at the big picture.  Unfortunately, people don't seem to make the decision to do the right thing until forced whether by an outright ban or a small fee.  If that's what it takes to motivate people, then I say we should do it.  Who loses?  Only the Chinese bag manufacturers, maybe they can switch to making re-usable cloth bags.