Paper Tote Bag: 3 Advantages and Disadvantages

An excellent carrier bag is always a lady’s best mate when shopping in the malls. Amount various reticules types, the tote bag, which has a large capacity and is easy to carry, is undoubtedly the most popular; many gentlemen also take it as a matching item. With the growth of the environmental protection concept, merchants have started to provide paper tote bags for their customers, helping them make a better shopping journey and promoting the brand.

What Is Tote Bag

To many people, the tote bag will be at once familiar and strange. You shall have seen it before, but you may not know its specific name. What is the word “TOTE” mean, and where is it from?

Where the word TOTE originated is indeed had no written records. It is believed that this word was from the African language “tuta” or the German “Tüte“; they both have a meaning of “to carry.” So Tote Bag means a large capacity carrier bag.

The history of the tote bag can be traced back to the 17th century. Still, the word tote wasn’t widely used until 1900. In 1944, an American outdoor recreation equipment brand L.L. Bean produced a canvas bag – Boat Bag, which is regarded as the predecessor of the tote bag. The bag was designed for kayak enthusiasts. It was sought after by much more people unexpectedly, and it started to become a trend.

In the 1960s, Bonnie Cashin, the designer of Coach published Cashin Carry Reticule. It integrated the bag’s body and handles cleverly and with a change pocket at the front side. Since that, the tote bag began to get a style.

In the 1990s, Kate Spade designed the tote bags with elements like stripe, color lumps, patterns, and bowknot, making tote bags step into the fashion handbags field.

In summary, large capacity, founder shape, and arched handles are the most significant features of a classic tote bag.

Nowadays, many paper packaging bag manufacturers, including JiRong, have also developed paper tote bag types. These paper stuffs inherited most of the traditional tote bag’s advantages, and they cost much lower and are easier to be recycled. You can also take it as a fast fashion item.

Paper Tote Bag’s advantages

Compared with the traditional bag made from canvas, cotton, or leather, the paper tote bag has its unique advantages.

More Eco-friendly Material

Cotton and Paper, which one is more friendly to the environment has always been controversial. But there is no doubt that both of them are more acceptable than leather; at least, it won’t get the trouble from the animal protection societies. Since people pay more and more attention to the environmental problems, the raw material for making paper – forest woods is well managed. Besides, paper has a feature on good recycling, which better matches sustainable development’s common vision.

Reusable

Different from ordinary paper shopping bags, tote bags are typically made from paper with a heavier basis weight. And, they have also assembled the nylon handles in a punch-hold way, which makes them more stable. So the paper tote bag is not a disposable thing; you can reuse it like the non-woven bag.

Low Cost

The low purchase cost is the most significant advantage that attracts merchants to choose paper tote bags. It can easily get various fantastic appearances by advanced printing technologies. This also reduces the brand promotion cost a lot. The big brands can also gain carbon-neutral integrals by purchasing and using recycled paper packages.

Paper Tote Bag’s Disadvantages

Every coin has two sides. Paper tote bag still has some disadvantages at the current technology level.

Short Service Life

Although you can reuse a paper tote bag for a long time, the short service life is still the most disadvantage. Paper is weak and fragile; once it contracts water, it gets soft and loses all the use-value. The pretty printed patterns on the paper bag will also fade after a burst of long sunshine. Fortunately, even it is damaged, it is easy to be recycled.

Rigid

The tote bag is famous for its large capacity. However, the soft degree of paper is far less than cotton and leather. You can not fill the bag as much as possible, or it will break. Besides, you can not fold to store the paper tote bag; it will make creases and impacts durability.

Poorer Weight Capacity

Both cotton and leather can be tightly stitched together, but paper only allows glued. When it close or exceed the weight capacity of a paper tote bag, the glued bottom may get torn, and stuff inside all fall to the ground. In fact, this problem can be optimized by using heavier basis weight paper to produce or add some strengthening; but it also costs more.

Conclusion

For merchants, it’s worth trying to offer paper tote bags to your customer instead of ordinary merchandise bags. The paper tote bag has a much outstanding appearance and is more friendly to the environment, and it can help improve your brand image a lot. The customer stickiness may also increase if you provide the recycling service.