The problem isn't the bags, but the slobs who let them blow away.
It doesn't matter how loud you yell, they still won't listen ... do they still throw their household trash in the rivers in Carolina? ... the dumps were free, but folks just kept throwing their trash into the rivers ... at least in Iowa, they burned it first, before they bulldozed the remains into the rivers ...
I've rarely sent a plastic bag to the dump empty ... they're full of CAT SHIT before I throw them away ... I don't throw away paper sacks at all, they're too useful ... all excess is easy to recycle ... glass is another container material that recycles really really well ...
Plastic may not recycle, but it sure as hell can be reused ...
Plastic burns ... we can make electricity from it ... and we won't have to separate the various plastics, just burn them at a high temperature ... plants can use the CO
2 as food and grow more human food crops, especially with higher global temperatures and more abundant and widespread rainfall ...
Planting trees in our urban landscapes does more to relieve human suffering than all the plastic bans put together ... your native maples and oaks ought not to need much help, just someone to put the darling babies in the ground ...