Maybe someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I recall reading somewhere that single use plastic bags are so cheap from production to destruction that they still make more environmental sense than totes and the like. Yes, the cotton bags last way longer, but the amount of water and energy spent to produce one is so much larger that you'd need to keep using one bag for decades just to break even. This is all paraphrasing from memory, perhaps someone else has a better recollection or a reference for this? For me, the main takeaway is not to religiously switch to reusable bags, but just use whatever you have handy and not shun away one over the other.
My local grocery store discontinued the use of plastic bags entirely. They now do a tidy trade in reusable bags at $1 a pop. Many of which are used only once.
The default experience just needs to be good enough. Beyond that folks with strong opinions will filter into moderation communities that offer them the curation they want. That's the technical side of this at least. There's larger problems around community culture but unrelated to tech.