The Clever Baggers Ltd is a specialist textile printing Company based in Welshpool on the Welsh Borders in the UK. We specialise in the supply and printing of cotton and cotton canvas products, notably bags, tea towels and aprons.

Cotton is not indigenous to the UK so has to be sourced from a cotton producing country. All our cotton and cotton canvas bags are made for us in modern factory in China (see Ethical Trading info) from cloth woven using cotton which is grown organically i.e. using only natural fertilisers and without the use of harmful pesticide sprays.

We transport made up bags by sea in containers of 100,000+ units at a time which minimises the carbon footprint of each bag. As we have massive stocks in Welshpool, delivery times are therefore dictated by the number of print orders we have at any given time, not by the length of time it takes to transport manufactured and printed goods from abroad and we are strongly opposed to using air freight to achieve speedy turnaround times

We call the cloth used in the manufacture of the natural bags loomstate as it is exactly as it comes off the weaving looms without any chemical additives, bleaching or dying. Cotton is a 100% sustainable resource and the bags will bio-degrade totally, quickly and safely (unlike so-called bio-degradable plastic bags which take many times longer to degrade and do so emitting harmful gasses). In fact, when the bags do eventually wear out, they can make a significant contribution to producing excellent compost! (Please ask for further details)

We silk screen print in our factory in Welshpool using pigment dyes (vegetable/mineral based) suspended in a water based binder. This process is so safe we are allowed by the Environment Agency to discharge waste product into a standard foul drain.

Although it is fair to say that there are certain disadvantages such as the carbon footprint caused by transportation, we have yet to find an alternative which has fewer. The whole production and printing process is therefore as environmentally-friendly as it can be.

Sadly there is no such thing as a perfect product but we firmly believe that we have got the balance right between what is acceptable to the planet and its inhabitants, and the urgent need to concentrate on the real culprit here which is the massively unacceptable use of plastic bags given away each day by retailers. In our view, this can only be done if we make the cost of the alternatives acceptable to a public which currently is being given no incentive to say 'no' to the multitude of plastic bags thrust under their noses whether they like it or not.


Click here to view our ethical information

We are now delighted to be able to confirm that our natural cotton and canvas bags  have passed the stringent Oeko-Tex Standard 100 test, confirming that there are no harmful chemicals or pesticides present. You can download a copy of the full report by clicking on the image below (pdf format, 1.4mb):