While I understand that it makes sense to ban plastic bags, I don't believe banning paper bags has nearly any positive impact on the environment.
If it's true that there really are no disposable bag regulations in Switzerland, then the much different outcome under the similar regulations also supports my point. If New Jersey thinks it has a problem where bags need to be reused more, then it would make sense to spell that out in law and nudge towards the overall desired solution (more reuse) rather than simply banning "disposable" (ie cheaply made) bags and hoping that people will automatically reuse more resource-costly ones.
That is literally what 'the market' always means.
It's not obvious to me. The article certainly attempted to make the claim, but the evidence was rough. Heck the evidence that most people find it inconvenient what that "most people don't have reusable bags with them all the time". Neither do I, yet somehow have been using them for years without issue.
> It's terrifying not knowing the underlying forces that are causing such a perversion to democracy.
Could it be that that your original thesis is wrong and it's not deeply unpopular, and not "perversion of democracy" at all?
You're right, in the short term a law banning plastic single use bags likely results in an increase in the number of multi-use bags people buy because they forgot. How long do you expect this cycle to go on for? I'm going to imagine it's "a few months" for most people, before you start leaving a couple bags in the back seat of your car. People are pretty clever and adaptable. It's akin to saying that we need to ban new calendar years because everyone writes the old calendar year for a few days in January. It seems pretty reasonable that people can and will, broadly speaking, remember their shopping bags.
The bottom line is that the tragedy of the commons is in full effect when it comes to plastic generally, and plastic bags specifically. We got addicted to them, and they're terrible. I'm going to write this one more time: We got addicted to them and they're terrible. Short term financial gains for long term environmental pains. We should have never switched from paper bags, but plastic solved a lot of problems, and nobody seemed to notice or care about the waste issue. This law itself may not be "fixing" the issue entirely, but it's forcing consumer change and that pain alone might helpful in solving the issues long term by forcing people to think about the topic.
Want to save the environment? lets focus on electrifying power tools and standardizing batteries so there is less gas used and e-waste. Let's encourage insulating old buildings. We should reward reduced packaging, more bulk purchase options. Doors should be required on coolers in grocery stores. Require greywater systems in new or renovated buildings. Mandate usage of native plant species for lawns/green areas. limit dilution of water based products.
I was around back then, and I seem to recall the switch was partially driven by environmentalist concerns due to deforestation.