jute facts

What is Jute?

Jute is a natural vegetable ‘bast’ fibre. It’s arguably the cheapest, most versatile, environmentally friendly, natural fibre in the world. It is a highly marketable and an economic alternative to plastic and paper bags.

Where's it from?

 Jute needs a really warm growing environment. Essentially it needs temperatures between 28C and 35C and humudity levels between 70% and 90%.  It's mostly grown in India and Bangladesh, employing about five million people.

What's it used for?

Jute is used to make common items such as rope, twine, chair coverings, curtains, sacks, hessian cloth, carpets, and even the backing used on linoleum. However increasingly the retail sector in realising its huge potential as an environmentally friendly alternative to plastic, paper and polypropelyene ('green eco-bags") carry bags.

Jute vs Polypropylene ('Green Bags')

Jute bags can be grown sustainably and breakdown without detriment to the environment. This cannot be said for the polypropylene bag (or ‘green bag’ as we've come to know them) which is 100% plastic. Sometimes clients do request a bag with a LDPE lining, increasing the Jute bag to a total 3.6% plastic.