It would be fine to collect plastic bags, as well as other plastic types, if recyclers could use plasma gasifiers ("burns" hotter, cleaner than incineration) on site to generate power (via syngas, waste to energy) instead of waiting for a buyer to arrive that never will. The slag would be used for roads mixed into asphalt aggregate (similar to how colored glass is used for construction aggregate).

Not everything collected through recycling must be "recycled" in the traditional sense. It should be called "landfill diversion", not recycling.