I found this article interesting and a good idea in theory, but I wonder if all the numbers have been figured to calculate the environmental impact of using another source en lieu of plastic bags. NPR's Science Friday did a snippet on this type of conservation effort in Ireland (I believe it was Ireland) and they found that more energy was used to transport the nonplastic bags because not as many fit in a truck; also, people ended up buying more garbage bags since they no longer had the smaller plastic bags to reuse for waste.

I try to ask for paper when it is possible, but I feel that I do reuse the plastic bags for transporting of goods that may leak in my backpack; tying groceries to my bike frame if it is a quick run to the store; reusing for garbage waste and lining trash bins. It would be a shame if my state of Iowa would adopt a no plastic rule without weighing the environmental impact of the replacement bag. Sometimes educating the public to reuse and recycle may just be better than mass change without the research.