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I have a real problem with some of the reusable cotton bags available for promotion these days. I have my doubts as to how eco-friendly some of these bags actually are.

When you consider that most promotional cotton shopper bags are manufactured in China and India, the damage to the environment just in their transportation is rather scary.

Getting your logo printed onto promotional plastic carrier bags could be a good low cost alternative.

Promotional plastic carrier bags have a bad name in many places but a lot of the negative publicity has been based on questionable information. They are available in both normal and biodegradable plastic and just as you may have guessed the eco-friendly versions are more expensive.

The plastic carrier bags available at supermarkets, shops and as promotional bags for carrying material around exhibitions are not necessarily as bad as people have been led to believe.

Promotional Carrier Bags from Exhibitions

These are manufactured to a much higher standard than the bags handed out at supermarkets. I personally use them often when shopping. They can be reused hundreds of times without falling apart. These plastic bags use less fuel to manufacture than ‘eco’ cotton bags and they are much less expensive to transport.

Printed Plastic Supermarket Style Lightweight Bags

These promotional bags are much lighter in weight and their reusable life is limited! They have also been blamed for the deaths of animals that eat them or get trapped in their handles.

This is sad but plastic bags are still a necessity.

Let’s look at some of the ways these lightweight plastic bags can be reused.

They can be used as disposable gloves for both your feet and hands when painting or staining.

1. Try doing that with a cotton shopper bag.They can be used to hold wet swimsuits and towels.
2. Use them to pick up after your dog or dispose of kitty litter.
3. Here’s a trick! Tie them around your outside car mirrors to keep them dry and frost free.
4. Supermarket bags are perfect used as small bin liners.

I would like to leave you with one final thought. In 2002 Ireland brought in a tax on all plastic supermarket bags. The tax actually reduced the use of supermarket plastic bags by 90%

Are you impressed? What a brilliant success!

Well, actually no… The sales of plastic bags such as bin liners, nappy bags and dog mess bags went up by 400% resulting in an increase in plastic bags in Ireland’s landfills.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 17th, 2011 at 9:38 am and is filed under promotional bags. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.