Factors affect the carrying capacity of non-woven shopping bags

Abstract

The belief that shopping with reusable shopping bags is an important environmental and socially conscious choice has gained prevalence. Many countries have taken steps to ban free retail use of disposable plastic bags. Non-woven shopping bags were widely used by consumers to carry purchased groceries and goods after prohibiting the distribution of free plastic shopping bags in China since June 1, 2008. Carrying capacity is an important factor that affects the reusable times of non-woven shopping bags. In this paper, the carrying capacity was evaluated with hanging tests. The results showed that handle belt and the seam jointing handle belt and bag body fatigued faster than other parts during tests. They were the most important two factors that affect the carrying capacity. Thermal attachment technology was better than sewing technology as it caused less cutting damages on the fabric during the production of non-woven shopping bags. Increasing the width of handle belts and the gram weight of non-woven fabric can improve the carrying capacity of shopping bags.