Eco Friendly Packaging Bags

As development of society and especially after COVID-19, people’s awareness of environment’s sustainability has been increased a lot. In packaging industries, eco friendly material enjoys great popularity. Today we are going to introduce two most commonly used eco friendly material for packaging bags. They are recycled material and compostable material.

1/Recycled bags

We call them recycled bags not because it can be recyclable, but for the raw material for it is from Post Consumer Waste(we call it PCW). For this material, certification needed is GRS. It is kind of eco friendly because the material used has been used once(or twice) already, and if we use it again, then we can save energy. But finally, bags made of this material cannot be degraded. Still it will cause pollution to the environment, just same as normal plastic material.

One concept we should all be aware is that all plastic material is recyclable, including normal plastic material or recycled plastic material. So donot misunderstand the concept of recycled bags as recyclable bags again. Cause all plastic material can be recyclable. Recycled bags means material used for the bag are from recycled material which has been used once already.

2/Compostable bags

Compostable bags can be compostable under soil,or some specific industrial facilities. They are 100% biodegradable. They are made of cornstarch,and other plant base substances like PLA,PBAT. PLA and PBAT are assurance for the tearing strength and they are plant based, with same feature as plant, can be composted. Certifications needed generally for this kind of bags would be OK Compost Industrial(AUS), Home Compost(AUS), BPI(America), DIN CERTCO(EN/ASTM), etc.

Comparisons:

1/ Pricing for recycled material would be for sure much cheaper than that of compostable material.

2/ Compostable material is 100% eco friendly while recycled material cannot be degraded finally and still will cause pollution to the environment.

3/ Quality for compostable bags are pretty good while for recycled bags, they will be with poorer tearing strength and printing effects. Would not suggest complicated printing for recycled bags.

Author's Remarks:
Hello, this is Patricia, the author of this article.

I have been in e-commerce and retail packaging industry for around 10 years. So I would like to share
what I know to you from a supplier's perspective.

Should you any questions or need this article in PDF file, pls donot hesitate to email us at hello@zkkpackaging.com.