Most sourcing pages on this subject read like a menu: a list of green-sounding materials, a row of certification logos, and an invitation to enquire. That is not much help when a retailer’s compliance team asks you to substantiate the word printed on your packaging.
This guide takes the opposite approach. For each of the main lower-impact bag materials it sets out what the material physically is, what it does well, where it costs you performance, and — the part that usually gets skipped — exactly which document you need in your file before a claim about it is safe to publish.
Three things buyers keep mixing up
Almost every argument about green packaging comes from collapsing three separate questions into one.
Composition is what the bag is made from: recycled polyester, virgin polypropylene, cotton, paper pulp, a starch-based film. This is a factual question and it is answered by a specification and a certificate of analysis.
End of life is what happens to the bag afterwards: kerbside recycling, industrial composting, incineration, landfill. This is not a property of the material alone. It depends entirely on the collection infrastructure in the market where the bag is thrown away, which is why the same bag can be genuinely recyclable in one country and not in another.
Substantiation is the paperwork that connects the first two to your specific order. A certificate held by a mill somewhere upstream is not the same as evidence that your goods contain the certified material. This distinction is where most greenwashing complaints actually originate, and it is the one we spend the most time on with buyers.
Recycled PET (RPET)
RPET shopping bags are woven or non-woven from polyester fibre spun out of post-consumer PET, most commonly beverage bottles. Mechanically the fabric behaves like conventional polyester: it is strong for its weight, it folds down small, it takes a printed image well and it washes.
What to specify. The recycled percentage, whether it is post-consumer or post-industrial, and the fabric weight. Post-consumer is the claim buyers care about; post-industrial recycled content is factory scrap and is much less meaningful to a compliance reviewer.
The document. The Global Recycled Standard (GRS) or the Recycled Claim Standard (RCS), both administered by Textile Exchange and issued by accredited certification bodies. The important nuance is that there are two kinds of document. A scope certificate says a company was certified for certain processes during a certain period. A transaction certificate ties a specific shipment of goods to that certification. Only the second one connects the claim to your order.
Where it costs you. Recycled polyester generally carries a premium over virgin, the colour consistency of undyed recycled fibre can vary between lots, and very light shades are harder to achieve cleanly. None of these are dealbreakers, but they belong in the quotation conversation rather than in a surprise later.
Cotton canvas: organic, recycled and conventional
Cotton canvas totes are the material buyers reach for when the bag is meant to be kept rather than used once. The hand-feel is genuinely different from synthetics and the bag survives years of use, which is the strongest argument in its favour.
It is worth being clear-eyed about the trade-off. Cotton is agriculturally intensive, and the life-cycle studies that compare a cotton tote with a light plastic bag usually conclude that the cotton bag has to be reused a great many times before it comes out ahead. That is an argument for durability and for designing a bag people actually want to keep — not an argument for calling cotton automatically better.
The documents. GOTS covers organic fibre content together with processing, chemical and social criteria; the Organic Content Standard (OCS) covers organic fibre content only. Recycled cotton falls under GRS or RCS as above. All of these are issued to the certified mill or processor, not to a bag maker, and again you want the transaction certificate for your goods.
Ink matters here. Pairing certified cotton with plastisol ink is a common own goal, because plastisol is a PVC-based system and it undermines the story the fabric is telling. Water-based and discharge inks are the usual alternatives, with a softer hand-feel and slightly different colour behaviour on dark fabric.
Kraft and art paper
Kraft paper bags have the widest genuine recyclability of anything discussed here, simply because paper collection is nearly universal and paper mills want the fibre. That is a real, defensible advantage.
The document. FSC or PEFC chain of custody. Both trace fibre back through the supply chain to a managed forest source. As with textiles, the certificate belongs to the mill and the converter; a claim on your bag needs the chain to be unbroken all the way to the printer, which is a stricter requirement than most buyers expect.
What breaks it. Lamination. A gloss or matte film laminated over a paper bag makes it look premium and makes it much harder to recycle, because the plastic layer has to be separated from the fibre. Foil stamping, heavy PVC-based coatings and plastic-reinforced handles do the same. If recyclability is the point of choosing paper, the finishing specification has to respect that.
Plant-starch film (PBAT and PLA)
Plant-starch mailing bags are made from a blend of PBAT, a flexible co-polyester, and PLA derived from corn starch. They keep the self-seal convenience and full-surface print area of a conventional poly mailer.
What the standards actually say. EN 13432 in Europe and ASTM D6400 in North America describe behaviour under industrial composting conditions: elevated temperature, controlled humidity, active microbial load, over a defined period. They say nothing about what happens in a garden compost heap, in soil, or in the sea. Home compostability is a separate certification with a different test protocol. Conflating the two is one of the most common substantiation failures in this category.
What it costs you. Starch-based film is typically less tear-resistant than polyethylene at the same thickness, which often means specifying a heavier gauge and giving back some of the material saving. It also has a shorter shelf life, so ordering a year of stock in one go is a poor idea. If your bags travel through humid warehousing, say so at the enquiry stage.
What to avoid. Oxo-degradable film, which is conventional plastic with an additive that accelerates fragmentation. It does not meet composting standards, it is restricted in the European Union under the Single-Use Plastics Directive, and it is not a material we would recommend specifying.
Polypropylene non-woven: the reuse argument
Non-woven PP bags deserve an honest paragraph, because they are the highest-volume product in this category and the claims made about them are frequently wrong.
Standard PP non-woven is not compostable and does not biodegrade in any meaningful timeframe. Its environmental case rests on one thing only: it replaces a large number of single-use bags, provided it is actually reused. That case is real, but it is a durability argument, and durability is a specification question — fabric weight, handle attachment method, base construction. Our guide to non-woven fabric weight covers how that translates into a spec.
The material is PP number 5 and therefore technically recyclable, but practical recyclability depends on local collection, and laminated non-woven generally is not recyclable at all because the BOPP film cannot be separated from the substrate in a normal stream. If a recyclability symbol is going on the bag, check the destination market first.
The certificates, and who actually issues them
None of the schemes below are issued by bag factories. They are issued by accredited certification bodies to the specific companies in the chain that were audited.
- GRS / RCS — recycled content in textiles, administered by Textile Exchange. GRS adds social, environmental and chemical criteria on top of RCS.
- GOTS / OCS — organic fibre. GOTS also covers processing and social criteria; OCS covers content only.
- FSC / PEFC — forest source and chain of custody for paper and pulp.
- EN 13432 / ASTM D6400 — industrial compostability of a specific film, evidenced by a test report or a scheme certificate such as those issued by TUV Austria or DIN CERTCO.
- REACH / Proposition 65 — chemical restrictions on inks, coatings and hardware, evidenced by a laboratory test report on the finished item rather than by a certificate.
- BSCI / Sedex SMETA — social compliance audits of a named facility. These are audit reports about labour and working conditions, not product claims, and they cannot be used to substantiate anything about the material.
How to check a certificate in ten minutes
Buyers are handed PDFs constantly and most never verify them. Four checks catch nearly everything.
Check the holder. Whose name is on it? If the certificate names a fabric mill and your supplier is a bag converter, the certificate does not by itself cover your goods.
Check the scope. Certificates list the processes and product categories they cover. A certificate covering woven fabric does not cover a printed and sewn bag.
Check the dates. Scope certificates expire, usually annually. A certificate that lapsed before your production window is not evidence for your order.
Check the register. GOTS, GRS and FSC all publish searchable public databases of valid certificates and licence numbers. If the number on the PDF is not in the register, stop and ask questions.
The regulators are catching up
Vague environmental language is no longer a low-risk marketing choice. The UK Competition and Markets Authority publishes a Green Claims Code and has taken action against consumer brands over unsubstantiated packaging language. The European Union’s Empowering Consumers Directive restricts generic environmental claims that are not backed by recognised evidence. In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission’s Green Guides set out what terms such as recyclable and degradable may be used to mean.
The practical consequence for a packaging buyer is simple: a specific, documented claim is safer than a broad one. “Made with 80% post-consumer recycled PET, GRS transaction certificate available” is defensible. A leaf icon next to the word “eco” is not.
Where we stand
We think it is worth being direct about this, because a lot of supplier pages are not.
We do not hold GOTS, GRS, FSC, BSCI or Sedex certification in our own name, and we do not present those schemes as though we did. What we do is source from mills and converters that hold the relevant certification for the material your project requires, arrange it per order, and pass the certificate and transaction documentation to you. We confirm the certificate number and its scope in writing before the word “certified” appears anywhere on your artwork. If a claim cannot be evidenced for your specific order, we will tell you and we will not print it.
Our production base is an SGS-verified facility in Wenzhou, which is a supplier verification that can be checked independently. Our quality and claims policy sets out in more detail which words we will and will not put on a bag, and what evidence each one requires.
What to send us
If a material or environmental requirement is part of your brief, four pieces of information let us answer it properly rather than generically: the destination market and any retailer or platform policy you have to satisfy, the exact wording you intend to put on the bag or the listing, whether you need the certificate itself or only the material, and who your compliance reviewer is going to be. That last one matters more than people expect, because a claim that satisfies a marketing team and a claim that satisfies a legal team are rarely the same sentence.
Frequently asked questions
Is a non-woven polypropylene bag recyclable?
The material is polypropylene, technically recyclable as PP number 5. Whether it is recyclable in practice depends on the collection system in your market, and laminated bags usually are not, because the BOPP film and the PP substrate cannot be separated in a normal recycling stream. Check the local system before printing a recyclability symbol.
What is the difference between GRS and RCS?
Both cover recycled content. RCS verifies the recycled input and its chain of custody. GRS does the same and adds social, environmental and chemical criteria at the processing stages. GRS is the stricter of the two and the one most large retailers ask for.
Does a certificate on the fabric cover the finished bag?
No. A scope certificate proves that a named company was certified for named processes during a named period. To connect that certificate to your specific goods you need a transaction certificate covering your shipment. Ask for both.
Can a bag be certified compostable?
Film can be produced against EN 13432 or ASTM D6400 requirements, which describe industrial composting conditions rather than home composting or open environments. Home composting is a separate certification with its own test protocol. Certification is arranged per order and the certificate number is confirmed in writing before anything is printed on the bag.
What is oxo-degradable plastic and should I use it?
Oxo-degradable plastic contains an additive that makes conventional plastic fragment faster. It does not biodegrade in the way a composting standard defines. It is restricted in the European Union under the Single-Use Plastics Directive and it is not a material we recommend specifying.
Global Bag Supply is a Wenzhou-based custom bag sourcing partner working with an SGS-verified production base, and we ship worldwide. Send us your artwork, quantity, destination market and any material requirement, and we will come back with a specification-based quotation, sampling options and a clear answer on what can be evidenced.
Request a Quote →Browse ProductsBuyer Summary
There is no universally best eco material. Match the bag to reuse behaviour, product load, destination-market requirements and the evidence available for recycled, compostable or other environmental claims.
Related Sourcing Resources
Frequently Asked Questions
- Are biodegradable and compostable claims interchangeable?
- No. Compostable claims should reference applicable standards and conditions; generic biodegradable wording is not an equivalent claim.
- Which documents should buyers request for recycled material?
- Define the required recycled content and ask for relevant supplier declarations, transaction records or certification appropriate to the claim.
- Is a reusable bag automatically environmentally preferable?
- Not automatically. Material, durability, actual reuse, transport, disposal and local systems all influence the outcome.
Prepared by the Global Bag Supply sourcing team · Updated August 8, 2026
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