The point you are making is great in regard that using a newly made cotton bag is obviously quite wasteful if you could just sew close the neck and arm holes in

The point you are making is great in regard that using a newly made cotton bag is obviously quite wasteful if you could just sew close the neck and arm holes in a larger old t-shirt you no longer use, add some handles and be done. I have gotten quite a number of cotton bags as goody bag from conferences (over the last 2 years some have even started handing out simple backpacks) and those are obviously bad but a proper cotton bag that you buy and use intentionally easily lasts 500 times.