Jute Bags and their uses: Why jute is important?

 Bag the Burlap!

Nowadays, people are realizing how important it is to care for the environment and most of all, care for one's self. Polythene pollution has drastically disturbed our everyday life style. Our oceans are brimming with plastic garbage that is harming the marine life and birds, our land fill dumps are overflowing with these bags that take hundreds and hundreds of years to decompose.

The statistics provided by the Sierra Club Sierra has shown that Americans dispose of over 100 billion plastic shopping bags per year. Among these bags only one to three percent is being recycled. Recycling doesn't have to be so difficult. It is easy to adapt to the practice of recycling and it is fundamental for the preservation of our environment.

Jute Hessian or burlap is one of the cheapest, affordable and the toughest of all natural fibers and considered as the fiber of the next generation. One hectare of Jute plants consumes over 15 tons of CO2, several times higher than trees. Popularly known as golden fiber, Jute is second only to cotton in world's production of textile fibers. India, Bangladesh, China and Thailand are the leading producers and manufacturers of Jute in the world.  Jute industry supports an estimated 5 million people in the poorest regions on earth. It is one of the most versatile, durable natural fibers that are extremely sturdy, strong and has the life expectancy of over a thousand plastic carrier bags. When discarded, jute totally decomposes giving back all its valuable nutrients into the soil

Jute tote bags have numerous uses. Jute bags can be used as a primary bag, carrying textbooks, folders, lunch, and mails.  It can also be used as a shopping bag primarily because it can be served as a substitute for disposable plastic shopping bags. Jute bags can also be used as a Beach bag for all those beach buddies. It is also being widely used as an office bags in developing countries. Jute bag is extremely easy to take care. Hand wash the jute bags in a sink filled with warm soapy water.  Let them air dry completely both inside and out. And voila! Your jute bags are ready to be used again.

 Jute affords low packaging cost for many commodities. The resilient strength of the burlap bag can withstand rough handling in transit. This leads to additional cost effectiveness because freedom from damage diminishes handling costs and avoids loss of contents from destruction of the bag. Ecofriendly and biodegradable, these bags are recyclable and thus environmentally friendly.  Jute bags seem to be the only sustainable option in the market now days. They are organic and can last forever. We should start by using organic, fair trade/locally produced jute bags to go shopping, and reuse them again and again for a better tomorrow.

Written By

Sreerupa Ghoshal