If we had been shoppng in the 40s and 50s, we'd have taken with us a basket or a leather, fabric or "rexine" bag. The shop assistant would have weighed our our potatoes and poured them into the bag, then our onions and carrots, then our sprouts, cooking apples and eating apples. She (or he( mwouild have totted up the cost as they went on apaper bag. If we were buying half a pound ofbiscuits (loose from a tin) they'd have gone in that paper bag. If not, it would have been used for the next person to buy something that really needed to be kept clean. If we were extra fussy, we kept a few paper bags and took them with us for the more dainty vegetables.
Meranwhile, we took our shopping home, transferred the veg to a vegetable rack in the larder and - wait for it, this is the important bit - washed them when we were going to use them. Surely we still do that washing bit? If so, why do they need to all be in little sterile separate plastic bags? And if we prefer them that way, why not keep back a few clean bags from the recycling/landfill to use again?