The purpose of this article is to present an extended and up-to-date critical analysis of the initiatives around the world to reduce the impact of plastic shopping bags. Although the environmental impact of plastic is widely documented, this article makes three significant contributions to the current research. First, I clarify scientific misconceptions about plastic and plastic bags. Second, I show that retailers were erroneously charged with fixing a problem because government and industry interventions were myopic and based on a linear efficiency logic model. And last I propose an innovative closed-loop, zero-waste sustainable framework that will strengthen the global competitive position of retailers and minimize the risk from adverse interventions.