E-COMMERCE BAGS

The UK Plastic Packaging Tax introduced in April 2022 imposes a 'per tonne' levy on manufactured or imported plastic packaging materials that contain less than 30% certified recycled content.
At Yorkshire Packaging Systems, we’ve worked closely with our manufacturing sites to release a range of flexible e-commerce poly bags that contain more than 30% (and as much as 70%) recycled content which are exempt from the tax. Look for the green logo stating 'Also available with recycled content' on our packaging material webpages to identify the conforming products.

Both horizontal and vertical processes are styles of automated bagging suited to a range of e-commerce packaging applications, but the way products are introduced to the machines in each setting is different. Vertical bagging systems are usually hand-loaded, where an operator drops a product downwards into an opened bag before it’s automatically sealed. Horizontal bagging involves the product travelling along an infeed conveyor and entering the bagging machine from a horizontal direction before being sealed within a bag material. Horizontal bagging is usually required when production is very high speed or high volume.

'Fan-folded bags' are laid-flat concertinaed polybags supplied in boxes. The box of e-commerce bags is positioned at the back of the autobagger and the chain of bags is threaded through into the machine via a clam-shell design. The term 'bags on reels' denotes a chain of bags wrapped around a central spool mounted on the machine, and fed directly into the printer. We’d recommend the use of fan-folded bags when the required bag size is especially large, as reel capacities are limited so the use of bags on reels would incur more downtime in production between changeovers.

All of our e-commerce poly bags can be supplied with a number of optional extras. Choose from vent holes (to expel air), hanger holes (for easy retail display), easy-open strips (vertical or horizontal positioning), or reclosable strips which enable consumers to re-purpose the packaging when returning goods - perfect for more companies and customers valuing more sustainable e-commerce mailers.