Decoding the Varied Features of PP, OPP, and BOPP Bags

Decoding the Varied Features of PP, OPP, and BOPP Bags

In virtually every industry, strategic packaging materials influence everything from product safety to supply chain mobility to how a product sells.

This makes selecting the right bag for your industry or application essential for success.

After all, today’s bags aren’t just bags. Far from it. Modern bulk bags, such as flexible intermediate bulk containers (FIBCs), have been exhaustively engineered and tested by experts to work well under specific conditions.

For your bag to work well under your specific conditions (e.g., where your warehouse is located, what type of filling apparatus you use, the nature of your product), you need to know which type of bag you need.

Knowing how to tell if your specific type of bag is well made? Also key.

Here’s a quick primer on three types of bags that are overwhelmingly popular across several industries and how to determine which type is perfect for your needs.

What are PP, OPP, and BOPP bags?

Let’s start with some definitions.

The letters “PP” in PP, OPP, and BOPP stand for polypropylene. Polypropylene is a polymer that is strong, resistant to many chemicals, and has favorable heat and barrier properties.

In other words: It makes for a durable and versatile bag. Polypropylene is often used to make coatings, films, tapes, and printed FIBCs on a mass scale.

Polypropylene can be manipulated to produce OPP and BOPP materials, or oriented and biaxially oriented polypropylene.

• Oriented polypropylene, or OPP, is a type of polypropylene film that is stretched in one direction. This offers better strength, clarity, and printability when compared to PP film. OPP tends to be used for labels and small film bags.
• Biaxially oriented polypropylene, or BOPP, is a type of polypropylene film that’s been stretched in two perpendicular directions. This offers even more strength, printability, and clarity when compared to PP and OPP materials. BOPP film is used to laminate over woven tapes often used in packaging. And because BOPP has innate printability, it’s commonly used for intricate branding and printing details on midsize or large bulk packages.

Which Industries are PP, OPP, and BOPP Bags Good For?

As we mentioned above, each type of bag is great for specific applications, as each offers unique strengths.

It’s worth discussing with your FIBC supplier which type of bag will work best for you, but here’s a quick overview:

Polypropylene (PP) bags are great for FIBCs, sandbags, and geotextiles. They’re fantastic multipurpose bags because they’re versatile, durable, and cost-effective.

Oriented polypropylene (OPP) bags excel when used to create small packaging materials, often in the medical, pharmaceutical, and food industries—particularly when they don’t need to carry much weight.

Biaxially-oriented polypropylene (BOPP) bags are best suited for packaging that needs many of the same qualities as OPP bags but also must support more weight. BOPP film is often used with woven tapes to create durable packaging materials. BOPP film is especially common in the pet food and food ingredient industries because they require bags that can carry 25-50 lbs.

The Pros and Cons of PP, OPP, and BOPP Bags

When you choose a specific type of bag, you need all of the information in front of you.

We’ve discussed general definitions of each type of bag and the industries they support best. To round out this guide, here’s a quick rundown of the pros and cons of each type of bag (save this post for later reference):

PP Woven Bags with PP Lamination

Pros and Cons:

• PP bags are sustainable, moisture-resistant, durable, and chemical-resistant.
• They’re also highly flammable, offer limited printability, and do not necessarily protect existing printing detail.

OPP Film Bags

Pros and Cons:

• OPP film bags are strong, hard to puncture or tear, and have a transparent, glossy finish. These bags are also moisture- and dust-proof.
• OPP film bags are difficult to stretch, and there’s a limit to how much weight they can carry.

BOPP Bags

Pros and Cons:

• BOPP bags provide high tensile strength, excellent clarity, and a high degree of dimensional stability and flatness.
• These bags have a low electrostatic charge, present a barrier to water vapor, and are resistant to oils and greases.
• Aesthetically, BOPP bags provide several perks: They have a high-gloss finish, offer reverse printing ability, and perform well in high-speed printing applications.
• Finally, BOPP bags are not affected by moisture. They don’t wrinkle or shrink with environmental changes. Plus, they’re recyclable!
• The disadvantages are limited, but BOPP bags are not biodegradable. However, they are considered recyclable and classified in the No. 5 plastic recycling stream accepted by some recycling facilities.
• One long-standing disadvantage of BOPP bags was sealing. However, Minh Anh Packaging has recently announced the first heat-sealable BOPP barrier bag available for industrial bulk packaging applications, such as animal and pet food manufacturing.

Choose the Right Bag for Your Needs with Minh Anh Packaging

Need help figuring out which bag is best for you? Consider these questions:

1. What grade of safety does your product require (e.g., food-grade, medical-grade)?
2. How important is crystal-clear branding for your product’s success?
3. Think about the equipment and processes you already have in place. Do you heat-seal your bags, for example?
4. Do you require a specifically sized bag?

If you’re interested in speaking with a packaging expert to determine the best bag for your needs, reach out to Minh Anh Packaging. Our friendly representatives and materials science engineers will be more than happy to discuss your packaging needs!

At Minh Anh Packaging, we offer a lifetime warranty for our packaging products.