If you are considering eco-friendly printed bags for your business then this article will help you make a decision on the type of bag you should go for. In this week’s blog post we take a look at the advantages of both cotton bags and jute bags.

WHY JUTE?

Printed jute bags are a popular option for those exhibiting at trade shows and other exhibitions. Customised printed jute bags allow you to promote your brand as well as encourage your customers to go green. A few of the advantages of Jute bags are as follows:

• Jute bags are usually much stronger than cotton bags and can withstand more stress and strain of daily use.

• Being more durable means that your customers will use your printed bags for a longer period of time. This is great for raising your brand awareness!

• If an eco-friendly image is important to your company, then jute is a great material to go for as it is 100% natural. It’s rustic appearance, combined with the fact that eco-friendly is now also trendy, means that jute offers affordable and attractive bags for promotional and retail purposes.

• Remember, a polypropylene lamination on the inside of jute bags means it would not be 100% recyclable, although it is great for reusability. The lamination does mean that if you were using this kind of bag for food and liquids, any spills could be easily wiped off. It also makes printing easier as it allows the ink to better hold to the surface of the bag.

• The rigidity of jute bags is better than the cotton bags as it is able to stand up on its own. This is a big advantage when loading shopping into the bags at a supermarket or other retail stores.

• Jute is grown fairly similarly to cotton except for the following major differences: it uses less water, requires no chemical pesticides and fertilisers to grow, and replenishes much faster. It also reaches maturity quickly, between 4-6 months, making it an incredibly efficient source of renewable material.

Advantages of cotton bags

• Cotton bags are made with natural fibres, which means they are completely eco-friendly, natural and bio-degradable.

• They are more durable and longer-lasting than plastic bags – and you can even opt for canvas bags, which are much thicker than our regular cotton bags.

• Cotton bags are a great option for a lightweight bag if you want something that you can fold into your pocket or put into a handbag, you certainly can’t do this easily with jute!

• They can be easily cleaned by washing them, unlike jute bags.

In terms of printing on these two types of bags, there is more flexibility with printing on cotton. Cotton is a perfect material for printed bags, as it is lightweight but durable and the fine weave means that intricate and detailed designs look great when printed onto it. The weave on Jute bags means that they are better for printing blocks and lines, they would not produce a high-quality print for a more detailed design.

If, however, you wanted the look of jute, but your design was more detailed the third option of Juco may be your answer. Juco is a 75% Jute and 25% Cotton blend. Juco has all the qualities of both jute and cotton and is just as strong and reusable, so can be used in much the same way, for shopping bags, bottle bags etc. It offers all of the natural properties of jute, but when blended with cotton it offers a finer weave. This gives the customer an option to be able to print a more detailed design on this fabric as it has more of a cotton finish.