Why are paper bags so rare?

I grew up in the 70s. Back then, just about every store used paper bags, not plastic. By the end of the decade, stores started to make the change to plastic bags, because they were considered a better alternative to cutting down trees. This never made sense to me. We moved away from an organic product made from trees, to a synthetic product that doesn't even break down in landfills. Why is that better?

While I completely understand the underlying problem that cutting down trees to make paper that will eventually be thrown out, I can't understand the solution. Instead of paper bags, why didn't we focus on building better recycling programs? I realize there weren't many paper recycling programs back in the 70s, but switching to plastic was not a better alternative.

If a lack of paper recycling programs was the root of the problem, a simple alternative would've been to encourage paper mills to plant more trees. It's not only great for the environment, it's great for them too because they eventually get to cut them down too.

This was featured as the August 21, 2017 Idea Of The Day.
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I post a new idea each day on my Idea of the Day Blog. Some don't suck.

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