When it comes to making decisions for your company, you have to strike a balance between what’s good for your company, what’s good for your customers, and what’s good for your community, including environmental issues. Offering reusable bags, especially when you add your company’s logo for promotional purposes, provides the opportunity to cover all of these bases. Your company benefits through the promotion of your brand, your customers benefit from getting to use high-quality reusable bags, and the environment benefits from less plastic bag waste.
But, it’s one thing to know the benefits of reusable bags, and it’s another thing to choose the best reusable bag for your company. We’re here to make the decision a bit easier. Here are our top 5 reusable bags that we love for promotional purposes.
1. Non-woven Polypropylene (NWPP)
Non-woven polypropylene (NWPP) is one of the most common reusable bag choices for retailers. It’s made by spinning polypropylene polymers into a thread and pressing them together using heat. The resulting textile is similar to a soft canvas, and it’s durable, flexible, and lightweight.
Although polypropylene is a plastic, it can be recycled, ensuring that the bag won’t end up in a landfill at the end of its life. It’s also durable, so it can be reused many times before wearing out. Because of this, NWPP has a much lower global warming potential than single-use plastic bags.
NWPP maintains its color well, which means that your logo will stand out for years to come. Because of its similarity to canvas, it can be made into many different types of bags, so you can choose the design that best suits your customers’ needs. For groceries or other items that can get a bit messy, you can also laminate your bags to make them waterproof and leak resistant.
2. Woven Polypropylene (PP)
Similar to NWPP, but a bit more durable, woven polypropylene bags are made by weaving together trips of NWPP. Because it is woven, it’s much stronger than NWPP. This makes it an ideal bag choice for supermarkets that offer heavier items or items in bulk.
Woven polypropylene can also be at least 60% recycled , so although it is made from plastic (often recycled plastic), it shouldn’t end up in a landfill. In fact, woven polypropylene is the chosen reusable bag material for many large retailers, including IKEA and Carrefour. Additionally, woven PP bags from Bk-Bags contain less virgin plastic than other PP bags, making them a more eco-friendly option.
Woven polypropylene is stain resistant, waterproof, and easy to clean. It’s also difficult to puncture, so they are a great choice for retailers that provide products like furniture, bulk items, hardware, and other such items.
Due to the nature of the material, your logo can be easily printed even in bright, colorful designs. And, the color won’t fade for a very long time, so your customers will be able to carry around this durable, aesthetically pleasing bag for years to come.
3. rPET bags
When it comes to sustainability, circularity is key; rather than using a product and throwing it away, we need to reuse the materials to their utmost extent. Recycling is an important part of this process.
rPET bags are made from recycled polyethylene terephthalate. This is the most common plastic type, and it’s what you find in water bottles and other disposable plastics. In order to be considered an rPET bag, it must be made from at least 80% recycled plastic and a special type of plastic PET bottles. The result is similar to woven PP bags, making them durable, easy to clean, and able to carry a lot of weight. It’s also made from completely recycled materials, so you can feel extra good about your reusable bag.
The rPET bags sold through Bk-Bags are made from disposable PET water bottles, like Coca-Cola bottles or other single-use plastic bottles.. At least 8 million tons of plastic ends up in the ocean every year, and plastic water bottles are part of that. Our rPET bags help keep plastic water bottles out of our oceans while minimizing the need for plastic bags. It’s a win-win!
If you choose to go with rPET reusable bags, not only can you promote your brand by adding a logo to the bag design, but you can also use the bags in your marketing strategy. Customers love to hear that their companies are making sustainable choices, and with rPET bags, your sustainability is two-fold: recycling plastic water bottles and eliminating plastic bag waste.
4. Bamboo bags
Bamboo bags are one of the newer reusable bag textiles out there. They are made from bamboo fibers which are spun into a thread that’s then pressed into a textile using heat. The result is a soft and beautiful fabric that’s similar to cotton. Unlike cotton, however, bamboo as a crop has a very low environmental impact.
Bamboo grows incredibly quickly. This means that once bamboo is harvested, you don’t have to wait too long before you have another crop again. Additionally, it requires no pesticides, low water consumption, and bamboo groves can even prevent soil erosion. It’s one of the few crops that can do more good than harm when planted.
Bamboo bags are also biodegradable, durable, and they look fantastic. With your brand’s logo printed on them, they are ideal for clothing retailers, jewelry stores, or other industries that provide less heavy-duty products, and it’s the perfect option for those who care about sustainable environmental protection.
5. Paper bags
Although paper bags are technically only single use, and they can really only be reused one or two times, they are biodegradable and recyclable, making them a much more ecological choice than plastic. Paper bags are an ideal offering for customers who forgot to bring their own reusable bag, or you can offer one of our paper gift bag choices, providing an environmentally friendly packaging choice for your customers.
When you buy paper bags through Bk-Bags, you know that they are ethically sourced. In fact, they can be certified as FCS, ensuring that all materials come from a clean source. We can also print any logo that you desire on a variety of paper colors, offering a beautifully customized look.
Although there are lots of reusable bag choices, choosing the right bag for your company doesn’t have to be difficult. Once you consider the type of products that you offer, the ease of use of the bag, and aesthetics, you should narrow down your options pretty quickly. If none of the above bag choices speak to you, check out some of our other bag materials, like our biobased bags which are made out of biodegradable plastic.