Supermarkets are not entirely to blame for plastic bags replacing paper ones.
There was much on the news back in the old days (heheh) how trees were being chopped down into wood chips for among other things....paper bags. Greenies and the like in those days had a lot to say about how bad this was. You can't win.
Supermarkets also had big bin areas to hold manufacturers' cardboard boxes that customers could help themselves to. It was quite a tradition for Mum to put the groceries on the checkout while Dad went to secure a suitable box. If nothing was the right size then paper bags had to do.
It's also simplistic to just blame plastic bags solely on supermarkets. Back to the rainy days in particular .... Customers soon discovered the advantage of being able to carry loads of shopping, sometimes in one go, from the car to the back door (and it was easier to get the keys out to open the door). Compare that to carrying sometimes just one heavy paper bag at a time into the house then back out again for the next one, then the next etc. You'd be soaking wet and before the last bag it was probably in pieces.
I liked the green (poly) bags of a few years ago...but they were Bad because they were made as part of petrol by products or something. Once again, you can't win. I still have these bags. Armed with scrap pieces of colourful fabric and my trusty sewing machine I've easily been able to repair or refusbish them. Frankly I think they are better than paper and plain plastic bags.
BTW, I wish we'd hear the end of 'single use' plastic bags. They've never been single use in my house, nor anyone else I've spoken to. It's a media beat up.
