I think there are several sources of these bags. People do litter. Garbage left on the curbside for pickup can be distributed if/when a dog upsets the bin or the human is not careful to close the bin properly. Dog walkers who carry bags to collect the dog poop loose them in gusts of wind. My neighborhood is urban, but not commercial. There are no public trash bins. Public trash bins are generally confined to shopping districts.
Our recycling containers are covered, but we have roving packs of rogue bambis that have learned to knock over the trash bins to find goodies.
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Weāre not supposed to recycle those plastic bags with our regular recycling, and our trash pick-up company sends regular notices reminding us of that. But hereās an idea that worked for me, and it might work for you, too. We now have heavy-duty, covered, wheeled recycling bins, similar to the trash bins, that are provided by the trash removal company. Before we had those, we used to put our recycling out in open, plastic tubs, like you do. But it got to where we had way more recycling than those tubs could hold. We had several wheeled trash cans that we used before they gave us the big ones, so I called the trash company and they sent me a large āRecyclingā sticker to put on my own container, which had a tight-fitting cover. Problem(s) solved! We no longer had to worry about raccoons, deer or skunks rummaging through the recycling container; the container was large enough to hold all of our weekly recycling materials; and no more worry about wind/weather blowing the recyclables around.
Can you spray the containers with deer repellant?
You correctly observe that the bans have an effect of shifting plastic demand from store-issued bags to bags bought specificially to be used in place of store-issued bags for trash can or dog waste uses. The plastic manufacturers are probably not noticing a significant change in overall purchases from bag suppliers.
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Hereās some info regarding bags made specifically for disposing of poop.
Friends who own a large dog tear newspaper sheets in half to carry along on walks. When the dog starts to squat - with most dogs, several seconds pass between starting to assume the position and the actual deposit - they slip several thicknesses of paper under his butt, then gather it up and put it into a small paper bag. Outside their house is a separate garbage can for these. Unless your dog is tiny, prone to the runs, or the type who drops a trail of tootsie rolls, this works out well.
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Thatās a GREAT idea! Obviously people who care about the planet. Iām impressed.
Maybe your onto something . Portable doggie toilet .
That garbage can is definitely a maggot farm during the summer and just about every dog is prone to soft stools from time to time. That just doesnāt sound practical.
We use biodegradable dog poop bags.
Which, even if not totally great, have to be better than grocery bags. Iām realizing how glad I am that we have a fenced yard. She can poop all she wants and we can go around with one bag and scoop it up. What a lovely convo for (human) food site 
āThe plastic manufacturers are probably not noticing a significant change in overall purchases from bag suppliers.ā
They are here in the UK:
A small government charge for bags came into force last October and it has been very effective. Everyone supports it, but Iām sorry about the job losses.
I wonder if the biodegradable bag, sitting in the middle of a landfill does actually degrade? I agree, the newspaper doesnāt sound practical for us. Also (to Grey), so they have a separate garbage canā¦doesnāt that garbage go to a landfill?
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Iām not expert, but my understanding is that if the bags are compostable as well as biodegradable they will decompose more quickly in a landfill type environment.
Substitution of products is ocurring without a significant change in overall raw material consumption. One firmās loss is anotherās opportunity.
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2015-08-18/how-a-ban-on-plastic-bags-can-go-wrong
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Plastics donāt really compost or biodegrade at any appreciable rate in a landfill. Even āgreenā bags, which state they will break down, do so under specific oxygen and temperature conditions which do not occur in a landfill, and require industrial composting to achieve. (ie- not your backyard compost pile. One year I put one of those ācompostableā iced coffee clear plastic cups in my compostā¦ and watched it not do anything for a year to prove the point.)
While all the dog poop discussion has been very, uh, enlightening, my real intent was to unearth more opinions about the net effects on peoples actions and attitudes regarding bag bans.
Part of my hesitation in fully supporting the bans seems to be the municipal level at which they occur. I find when towns (as opposed to states or countries) get super-focused on some little bit of legislation, they tend to get tunnel vision and ignore the forest for the trees. Granted, if those trees are festooned with plastic bags I can understand the temptation. But to me itās still not terribly clear that on a world-wide environmental scale this is the best way to proceed. I will, of course, keep bringing my own reusable bags.
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I see what youāre saying but believe that this is one of those cases where anything we do is better than doing nothing. It costs little. Itās a matter of training myself. Weāre in Seattle for two weeks and they charge a nickel for a paper bag and donāt have plastic, except for produce. Itās not the nickel. Itās the reminder. And if we forget I feel so guilty cause weāre, like, the ONLY ones 
Thatās exactly what I thought.
Love it!
All those re-usable bags that are woven polypropylene are okay if you never put anything wet or dirty in them and can actually re-use them hundreds of times before they rip. But what you really want to use are totally washable, indestructible bagsāeither string bags or cloth bags that you can wash by throwing into the washing machine and will last forever. My three upholstery fabric bags will outlast me, Iām pretty sure.
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[quote=āParsnipity, post:36, topic:4921ā]
Part of my hesitation in fully supporting the bans seems to be the municipal level at which they occur. I find when towns (as opposed to states or countries) get super-focused on some little bit of legislation, they tend to get tunnel vision and ignore the forest for the trees. Granted, if those trees are festooned with plastic bags I can understand the temptation. But to me itās still not terribly clear that on a world-wide environmental scale this is the best way to proceed.[/quote]
What would you suggest as a reasonable alternative first step?
