Recycled Mailing Bags

Minimum order quantity: 5000

Made from up to 98% recycled plastic, these mailing bags are a more sustainable alternative to virgin poly mailer bags. Bring your brand to life with up to 4 Pantone colours and add a double peel & seal to make fulfilment fast and returns easy. Ideal for fashion and apparel.

Sourceful recycled mailer bags are exempt from the Plastic Packaging Tax.

Recycled materials
Custom printing
4 Pantone colours
Outside print: 1 colour

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Key features

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What is a mailing bag?

A mailing bag, also known as a courier or mailer bag, is a type of packaging designed for shipping non-fragile items like clothing. Typically, they’re crafted from lightweight materials like plastic or paper and can also be waterproof and tear-resistant. Like most custom packaging, mailing bags do come in various sizes to cater to different products. Understanding mailing bag sizes is essential for both protecting your product and minimising waste.

One of the key benefits of mailing bags is combining a lightweight, cost-effective solution with great sustainability credentials. For example, many mailer bags are 100% recyclable. That said, there are still non-recyclable, virgin plastic mailing bags which are much less sustainable. If you’re trying to reduce your carbon footprint, we’d always recommend a recyclable mailing bag.

What can I ship in a mailer bag?

Recycled mailing bags are ideal for shipping non-fragile items like clothing (shirts, trousers, hats, shoes, accessories etc.) and some electronics. As they’re waterproof, they’re also great for shipping items that need protection from rain or spillages. We don’t, however, recommend shipping any fragile products or products with sharp edges or corners. If you need more protection, we’d recommend a honeycomb mailer bag.

Composition

Minimise your carbon footprint or balance performance with sustainability.

Comparison of Sourceful's two recycled mailer bags, made from 98% recycled content and 30% recycled content.

Carbon footprint

Switch to a more sustainable mailer bag and reduce your carbon footprint by up to 29%.

How is this calculated?

Specification

Understand your entire supply chain

Node map of a recycled mailer bag's carbon footprint.

Carbon footprint breakdown of a recycled mailer bag.

Materials

Rl
Recycled LDPE
Recycled LDPE is low-density polyethylene made from recycled feedstock, making it a more sustainable alternative to virgin LDPE. Due to the contents of recycled plastic, these mailer bags will have some small white flecks on their surface.
Vl
Virgin LDPE
Virgin LDPE is low-density polyethylene (LDPE) made from virgin raw materials like crude oil. Virgin LDPE has a higher carbon footprint than recycled LDPE.
M
Masterbatch
Masterbatches are mixtures of additives or pigments that are used to colour PCR plastic film. Sourceful mailer bags use white masterbatch (outer layer) and black masterbatch (inner layer). Masterbatch is often made with virgin materials.
Sp
Single peel & seal
One strip of adhesive covered with PET backing paper. A single peel & seal makes fulfilment fast and helps make your packaging tamper-proof. Adding a peel & seal has minimal impact on your carbon footprint.
Dp
Double peel & seal
Two strips of adhesive covered with PET backing paper. A double peel & seal makes fulfilment fast and returns easy for your customers. Adding a peel & seal has minimal impact on your carbon footprint.
Si
Solvent-based inks
Solvent-based inks use solvents such as propyl acetate as their primary base. Commonly used for gravure printing because they dry quickly and allow for high-speed printing. Solvent-based inks offer a high-quality print finish but do have a higher carbon footprint than water or vegetable-based inks.

Production

Secondary packaging

Transport

End of life

Supply chain assurance

A resilient, responsible supply chain

Certifications

We validate all supplier claims and third-party certifications such as ISO, BRC and FSC. And we ensure suppliers adhere to UK and EU laws on chemicals and product components, like UK REACH. This allows businesses to confidently buy high-quality products that align with a net-zero trajectory.

Our recycled post-consumer polyethylene supply chain is certified to the Global Recycled Standard (GRS). The Global Recycled Standard verifies the percentage of recycled content and tracks it from the source to the final product.

Vetted suppliers

We visit and vet every supplier we work with. We use our code of conduct to do this, which defines what we consider to be ethical working conditions. To work with Sourceful, suppliers and their manufacturing sites must meet this code. We then review their practices every year.

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Quality control

Every order from our suppliers undergoes a quality inspection process before it’s shipped. Any order that fails quality inspection is returned to the manufacturer or reproduced immediately.

For orders manufactured internationally (outside the UK) we follow the Acceptable Quality Limit (AQL) method defined by ISO standards in ISO 2859 - 1.

For orders manufactured domestically (inside the UK), our suppliers perform the quality inspection process which we then verify through spot checks throughout the year.

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