ironically it isn't banning plastic bags that is real communism - it's offering them for "free" ...

the right solution would be to make people pay a non-trivial amount for for bags ( corresponding to the cost of properly disposing of them in land fills ) but allow people to use their own reusable bags for free instead.

both banning things and making them free destroys market signals.

COST is how choices are made in the free market.

in a free market everything is legal but nothing is "free"

unfortunately the average mind is too primitive to grasp the concept of freedom and wants everything either banned or mandated.