It seems as though there’s a bit of confusion out there as to which non-woven promotional tote bags are made from recycled material vs. recyclable material, so I thought I’d lend a helping hand here.  You’ve all seen the super light-weight, non-woven, non-cotton promotional tote bags for sale at your local grocery store, yes?  They all love to brand these.  My personal favorites tend to be the Trader Joes bags – love em!  All of those non-woven bags are made from one of two materials – either polypropylene (laminated or non) or recycled PET, otherwise known as RPET.  What’s the difference you ask?  Here we go…

Polypropylene – generally lighter in weight than RPET, durable, comes in every color under the rainbow and every style imaginable (pretty much), least expensive of the two fabrics, sometimes contains a small amount of post-industrial recycled material, is fully recyclable in communities that recycle plastic #5 as long as you go with the non-laminated version.   

RPET – typically a bit thicker material than the polypropylene and feels similiar to denier nylon, durable, fairly limited options style-wise right now, typically comes in black although a few styles are offered in colors at higher quantities, generally made from 100% post-consumer recycled plastic bottles (#1) – very exciting!

Bottom line… both are great options, but if you’re interested in post-consumer recycled material, take a look at the RPET tote bags.  If you decide on polypropylene, I would highly recommend having a small #5 recycle symbol printed discretely in the corner of the imprint area.  If you don’t, I can guarantee people won’t know they can be recycled.

I hope that helps clear things up.  If not, shoot me a comment with your questions – I’m happy to answer them.

Be well~      eco promos girl