RALEIGH, N.C.  – A North Carolina legislator wants to ban plastic shopping bags in counties along the Outer Banks, saying they are a trashy eyesore when blowing along beaches.

The Charlotte Observer reported Wednesday that the ban is a pilot program being pushed by state Senate leader Marc Basnight, D-Dare. Basnight wants shoppers in Dare, Currituck and Hyde counties to be given bags made of 100 percent recycled paper.

Basnight says he began using paper bags for takeout orders last week in his Nags Head restaurant. The senator said bags that get out of trash cans pollute the beauty that Outer Banks businesses are promoting to tourists.