I recently moved to a new city, and found out that their recycling service doesn't take plastic bags in their bins. If I don't re-use them I'll have to take them back to the store to stick in the plastic bag recycling containers.
However, I would like to say that I actually like using re-usable bags when I'm shopping, and I've never gotten food poisoning from them. I am disgusted that people would allow them to get that dirty without washing them. They are easy to toss in the wash when necessary, and if you are already doing laundry then I don't see how that would add a significant amount of energy use. Also, I do always put a small plastic bag around any meat products I get. I like the fact that they don't tear on me while I carrying things up, and they are bigger so more items fit in them reducing the number of trips I have to take.