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I'm not so sure it's been any good. What's actually happened is supermarkets have replaced the thin plastic bags with far thicker plastic bags. While sales of plastic bags has went down, considering the ones that are sold are vastly thicker, I'm not really sure if there's been a net decrease in plastic use by weight.

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This seems like a positive outcome to me - thicker plastic bags are more durable, can be reused for longer etc., so while there may still be the same amount of plastic "being used", more of it is presumably plastic that has been used before, and so less ending up in landfill?

The big issue has been with the labelling for these thicker bags. The marketing term has been "Bag for Life" - but the goal of that term was that this bag could be replaced for free at the supermarket so that they could be recycled properly.

In reality, very few people understood the setup and people have instead been treating them like the usual disposable plastic bags that just happen to cost a bit extra.

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