Who pays for all the plastic-bags that are floating in the wind on the side of the road?<p>In any case, a ban is dumb. My state has a plastic-bag tax to pay for the externality. Its minor, and it helps people remember that plastic-bags cause real pollution... without necessarily hitting people with a hammer over it.<p>Most people move on to reusable bags because of a minor tax. So it was effective as well.