At one time, we used brown paper bags for groceries. We then drew on the brown paper, wrapped our school books in them, made masks of them, used them to wrap packages, to carry goodies and snacks, and occasionally burned them for fuel, or sent them to the landfill to produce valuable methane.
Then some "ecologically minded persons" came along and said paper bags were bad for the poor trees, which were grown specifically for the purpose of making bags. This is like claiming steak is bad for the domestic cattle population. Or that apple juice is bad for the apples.
So we switched to plastic.
Now, occasionally a paper bag would tear. But you could stack two dozen cans in them and they'd fit the shape for easy support while carrying. Plastic bags are the wrong shape, too small, have to be carried in bundles each holding a couple of items. And, they're not biodegradable, are harmful to animals, and none of the local resources will recycle the damned things. Then we have the article above.
This is one of the thousands of reasons why whenever someone opens their mouth about the environment, if they are not an engineer, a scientist, or someone holding a sheet of figures, you smile, nod and ignore them.
