It's part of the "war on poor people". Not a coordinated action but an emergent behavior that keeps the bottom rung of society in their place, and makes sure we keep our servant class in an appropriate level of bondage
If anything, banning plastic bags would be a better fit for the narrative. Plastic bags are water resistant, and used to be more resilient and thus more reusable than paper bags. In some Asian countries, plastic bags are used to carry food, even soup, replacing more expensive containers.
Also, i used to be poor and we took cardboard/wood boxes to carry our vegetables, it was used to lit our fireplace. We rarely took single use plastic bags, and it was before 2005