Time to ban plastic bags?

exportedkiwi (New Zealand)

All those who've taken a train trip around China and have seen the rails lined with plastic bags thrown from the trains, raise your hands. This trash is blown onto farmers’ fields, where it's plowed into the ground. I say get rid of them entirely! Why can't we make strong paper bags that are usable in the same way and can be recycled to make more paper bags? No need to cut trees down, there's enough waste paper generated for this to be viable.