A swag bag is a bag made of paper, usually kraft paper. They can be made either with virgin or recycled fibers to meet customers’ demands and are commonly used as shopping carrier bags and for packaging some consumer goods.  

Standard brown paper swag bags are made from kraft paper. Tote-style paper carrier bags, such as those often used by department stores or as gift bags, can be made from any kind of paper, and come in any color.

There are two different styles of handles for paper carrier bags: flat handles and cord handles. Paper carrier bags made from virgin kraft paper are developed especially for demanding packaging. Paper swag bags can be made from recycled paper, with some local laws requiring bags to have a minimum percentage of post-consumer recycled content.

Recycling

Paper bags are highly biodegradable and recyclable, and hence does not pose the same environmental footprint as plastic bags do. The fibres are reused 3.6 times on average in Europe, while the world average is 2.4 times.

Plastic or water-resistant coatings or layers make recycling more difficult. Paper bag recycling is done through the re-pulping of the paper recycling and pressing into the required shapes.