New York City has passed a bill requiring stores over 5000 sq feet or more then 5 locations in the city to be required to collect and recycle plastic bags at their stores. It is estimated that NYC alone uses over a BILLION bags a year. The bill passed 44 to 2 with, surprise, surprise, the 2 dissenting votes coming from 2 out of 3 Republican members.
The US uses 86 billion plastic bags a year. In my house we have switched from getting these plastic bags in grocery stores, to bringing our own canvas bags. This has its own advantages, some stores are starting to give 10 cent discounts for using your own bag. I think this is a positive approach and hopefully will encourage more customers to switch.
Our biggest reuse of plastic was for picking up dog poop on our morning walks. With the use of canvas bags, we have no more plastic bags to use, so we have started using
BioBags, which are corn based biodegradable plastic. They work much better then plastic bags, which tend to have holes in them at the wrong time, gross. I haven't tried their cat bags or their kitchen bags yet, but plan on doing so soon.