What Are the Environmentally-Friendly Alternatives to Poly Bags?
Poly bags or pouches are used to package all sorts of products, from clothing to magazines and other consumer goods. However, the bags are comprised of a plastic film if not made entirely of plastic. So what are some eco-friendly alternatives you can use instead of poly bags?
For a greener impact on our planet, try one of these 8 options instead of poly bags:
Corrugated pads
Tissue paper
Recycled packaging paper
Glassine bags
Kraft bags
Raffia or hemp twine ties
Mesh bags
Paper product wrap
If your apparel brand is looking for shipping protection that’s better for our planet, and you should be according to your customers, you'll be relieved to know you have some great options. Ahead, we’ll elaborate on each one so you can ditch the poly bags and never look back!
8 Green Alternatives to Poly Bags
1. Corrugated Pads
To better protect goods before they’re shipped out the door, corrugated pads are a much stronger solution than poly bags. These purely recycled pads are also the more environmentally-friendly option of the two.
Corrugated pads are best used for flat and rigid items such as delicates, as the pads can sandwich the item and safeguard it during shipping.
Thinner corrugated inserts are more appropriate for clothing within this type of packaging. The garments will stay folded during transport and arrive to the customer neat and looking great.
2. Tissue Paper
On its own, tissue paper is not the most viable poly bag alternative, so it will need to be combined with additional material on this list. But there are some benefits to it still.
Tissue paper is a cheap way to cover the garments you’re shipping, keeping them free of dust, dirt, and other damage that could accumulate as the good leaves your warehouse or distribution center and reaches the next stage of its destination. That's its purpose and reason for popularity.
The best part about using tissue paper is that it’s already recycled, since the fibers needed to make tissue paper come from previously recycled paper products. Because the fibers are already so short, there’s no feasible way to recycle the tissue paper again.
To prevent the tissue paper from ripping as it’s packaged, be sure to apply several layers of the stuff to the garment.
This is also great material for adding your brand mark or a catchy slogan. Your brand has limitless ways to customize tissue paper. This wouldn't be for any other benefit than marketing or branding.
3. Recycled Packaging Paper
Your customers, and your brand for that matter, won’t miss plastic poly bags when you switch to recycled packaging paper instead. Packaging paper is fully recycled paper that’s compostable and biodegradable.
This way, when the consumer throws away the packaging paper after opening their product, it won’t languish for years in a landfill the same way plastic does. Kraft paper–which we’ll talk about shortly–is technically a form of recycled packaging paper, but it’s not the only one.
You can also wrap an item to be shipped in newsprint paper. Although this might make you think of paper ripped straight from the pages of a newspaper, that’s not exactly what newsprint paper is.
Newsprint is a white, clean type of recycled packaging paper that’s used for product wrapping. It’s thicker than tissue paper but thinner than other types of packaging paper.
You may also consider bogus paper, which is a combination of newsprint and Kraft papers. Bogus paper is stronger and thicker than newsprint paper on its own, and it’s also absorbent and very pliable for bending or folding.
Kraft, newsprint, and bogus paper are all recycled packaging options, with just enough weight to keep your goods protected.
4. Glassine Bags
Poly bags are out, and glassine bags are in. Glassine is a type of glossy, smooth paper that offers excellent resistance against grease, water, and air. Translucent when you look at the individual layers, glassine can be dyed so it’s opaque and more colorful.
Although a glassine bag has almost the same look and feel as wax paper, it’s not the same at all. It lacks any kind of silicone, paraffin, or wax coating like wax paper has.
To produce glassine, it undergoes a manufacturing process known as supercalendering. This process begins with pressing and drying the glassine. Next, in the form of a paper web, the glassine travels through rolls, some that are covered in fiber and others that are covered in steel.
These rolls are the supercalenders.
As the glassine rolls around, the paper fibers within become unidirectional and flatter. While glassine is not made of recycled materials, since it’s comprised of paper, you can recycle the entirety of the bag after use.
5. Kraft Bags
The next environmentally-friendly poly bag alternative is Kraft paper, which is named after the Kraft process and one of the most iconic paper products out there, thanks to its distinct shade of brown.
The Kraft process is sometimes referred to as the sulfate process or Kraft pulping and involves taking wood and converting it into wood pulp.
The wood chips are treated with a combination of products, including white liquor, which is merely sodium sulfide mixed with sodium hydroxide. Heated water is also added to the mix to begin breaking down the cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin in the wood chips.
The result is a type of paper that can be used to fill packaging voids and wrap items when in loose paper form. Kraft bags are valuable for inserting clothing and other small products to be shipped.
Kraft paper is beloved for its durability, strength, and tear resistance. You can select from several thicknesses for lighter-weight Kraft bags or heavier Kraft bags such as for packing weightier clothing like hoodies. Indented Kraft paper is a type of Kraft paper that is valuable for cushioning.
6. Raffia or Hemp Twine Ties
If you’re merely interested in securing clothing and can do without tissue or bag protection, then you can always use simple ties made of fiber-based products, like raffia or hemp.
The Raphia farinfera palm’s segmented leaves are harvested and then used to make raffia. The biodegradable raffia is simple to dye if you’re interested in a more colorful presentation. It’s also quite durable, strong, and pliable while remaining soft to the touch.
Hemp is just as good, if not better. It's a miracle plant by unique standards, creating apparel and other products like few other natural fibers can. Hemp is highly sustainable, creating long-lasting materials as well.
7. Mesh Bags
To protect clothing without plastic, mesh bags are yet another green solution to consider. Mesh is available in various densities. While thicker mesh holds up better, it’s opaquer.
The upside to thicker mesh is that it’s typically reusable. Customers are receiving more than just a garment then but a gift in the mesh bag. This can go a long way toward a brand's reputation as eco-friendly, as well as building consumer loyalty.
However, consumers might not know that the mesh bag is reusable unless you tell them, so this will need to become an important part of your communication vehicle in the packaging.
Most mesh is made of a combination of polytetrafluoroethylene or PTFE, polyester, and polypropylene, and it takes upwards of 18 months for it to break down in a landfill.
Thus, while mesh bags are eco-friendlier than poly bags, they’re not necessarily the best solution for our planet on this list. There are some recycled polyester alternatives as well, but a similar point stands - it's sustainable, but not the most sustainable fiber.
8. Paper Product Wrap
The last poly bag alternative we’ll look at is rather simple. It’s a paper product wrap. These wraps are made of recycled packing paper. They’re moderately thick to have a feel closer to cardboard but are still able to be torn when the consumer wants to open them.
Paper product wraps create a cuff around a rolled garment such as a t-shirt. The shirt won’t come out of the paper product wrap neatly folded the same way it would with some of the other options we’ve looked at, but its presentation is neat enough.
Consumers will be able to see and feel their garment since the paper product wrap only covers some of the garment. If you’re shipping multiple garments at once, paper product wraps are a great space-saving measure.
More clothes can fit in the same box compared to using bags or folding the clothes and stacking them between tissue paper layers. You can cut down on the size of shipping boxes, which in itself is eco-friendly.
Do Your Part and Ditch the Plastic
Plastic is highly damaging to our planet in so many ways. It sits in landfills for hundreds of years before biodegrading (about 450 years, to be exact).
The plastic that doesn’t end up in landfills can reach the oceans instead, where it’s ingested by wildlife and can cause rampant deaths.
Your consumers want your entire apparel process to be sustainable - from picking a natural fiber to dropping a package at their doorstep. By moving away from poly bags, you can do your part to make this planet and your brand that much greener.
If you need help on how to approach sustainable activewear, be sure to check out Sport Casuals' guide on the matter.
If you want to shortcut the process, give us a call or shoot us a note - we know the ins and outs of how you can go more environmentally friendly at every stage of apparel production.