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How a European Bedding Brand Developed Custom Compostable Packaging Bags
A European bedding and home-textile brand approached ORIZON Biomaterials to develop two custom compostable packaging bags for its products.
The project included a larger gusseted bag for mattress protectors and a second flat-format bag for garments and other soft textile products.
The customer needed transparent compostable film, black custom printing, adhesive closures and packaging dimensions suitable for relatively bulky but lightweight textile products.
The main challenge was not simply producing the bags to size. During production, the large bottom gusset required additional machine adjustment because compostable film behaves differently from conventional polyethylene.
Here is how we worked through the bag structure, gusset adjustment, seal testing, packing configuration and international shipment with the customer.
Customer Requirements
| Project Detail | Final Specification |
|---|---|
| Customer | European bedding and home-textile brand |
| Product 1 | Compostable mattress protector bag |
| Product 1 Size | 350 × 460 mm nominal body size |
| Adhesive Flap | 50 mm |
| Bottom Gusset | Approx. 210 mm expanded |
| Product 2 | Compostable garment bag |
| Product 2 Size | 400 × 450 mm body size |
| Thickness | 40 μm |
| Film | Transparent compostable film |
| Printing | 2 sides / 1 color black |
| Packing | 50 pcs per inner pack |
| Carton Packing | 1,000 pcs per export carton |
| Final Quantity | 4,000 pcs per item / 8,000 pcs total |
| Export Cartons | 8 cartons |
| Destination | Europe |
| Project Status | Production completed and shipped |
The Challenge: Launching a New Branded Product
The mattress protector bag was designed to accommodate a relatively bulky textile product.
The original structure included:
- 350 mm bag width;
- 460 mm body height;
- 50 mm adhesive flap;
- approximately 220 mm expanded bottom gusset.
The large gusset was important because the bag needed enough internal depth for the packed textile product.
During machine setup, however, our production team found that the requested gusset depth was difficult to run consistently.
This was mainly related to the processing characteristics of the compostable film.
Compared with conventional polyethylene film, this material had higher surface friction and behaved differently during folding, heat sealing and bag forming.
The deeper the gusset became, the more difficult it was to keep the film running smoothly through the machine.
Rather than continuing production with an unstable configuration, we stopped the process and discussed the limitation with the customer.
Solution 1: Confirming the Minimum Functional Gusset
The first step was to understand which part of the specification was essential for the customer.
The customer clarified that the most important requirement was:
The total expanded bottom gusset must be no less than 200 mm.
This gave us room to adjust the structure without reducing the bag’s functional capacity below the customer’s requirement.
Our technical team continued machine testing and eventually achieved a gusset depth of approximately 105 mm per side.
This resulted in a total expanded bottom gusset of approximately:
210 mm
The adjusted structure therefore remained above the customer’s required minimum while providing more stable machine operation.
The final solution balanced:
- internal packaging capacity;
- machine stability;
- folding consistency;
- sealing performance;
- compostable film processing limitations.
Solution 2: Adjusting the Bag Structure Without Reducing Overall Capacity
Rather than simply reducing the gusset and making the bag smaller, we adjusted the relationship between the bag body height and the bottom gusset.
The original structure had been based on a deeper gusset.
During testing, part of this depth was redistributed into the usable bag body while keeping the overall flat length approximately unchanged.
This was an important distinction.
The purpose of the adjustment was not to reduce the amount of film or decrease the usable bag size. It was to make the structure more compatible with the bag-making process while retaining the packaging capacity required by the customer.
Before continuing production, we explained the proposed adjustment and obtained confirmation of the customer’s minimum gusset requirement.
Solution 3: Testing the Bottom Seal Under Realistic Loads
During production testing, another issue appeared around the heat-sealed corners of the bottom gusset.
Because of the compostable material’s sealing characteristics, the sealed corners could separate if they were deliberately pulled or torn strongly by hand.
This raised an important question:
Would the bag still perform properly during normal use with the customer’s actual products?
Instead of judging the seal only by manual pulling, we carried out practical loading tests.
The customer had previously indicated that the packed textile product weighed approximately 2 kg.
We therefore tested the bags using products weighing approximately:
- 2.0 kg;
- 2.5 kg.
Under normal filling, lifting and handling conditions, the bags held the products properly and the bottom seals remained intact.
The issue appeared only when direct force was intentionally applied to the sealed gusset corners.
We reported this characteristic to the customer before continuing the remaining production.
This allowed the customer to evaluate the bag based on its actual intended use rather than on an unrealistic destructive test alone.
Why End-Use Testing Was Important
This project was not simply a matter of producing a bag to a given size.
Film thickness and bag weight
A 25-micron film significantly increases the weight of a 250-bag roll, which affects winding, paper-core strength, carton design and freight.
Roll diameter and dispensing
The number of bags per roll had to remain practical for the customer’s dispensing application while keeping the roll compact.
Carton optimization
The export carton needed to accommodate six heavy rolls without excessive empty space or unnecessary shipping volume.
MOQ conversion
The production MOQ was specified by material weight, so the final roll and bag quantities had to be calculated from the actual finished bag weight.
DDP logistics
The finished packing configuration also needed to work efficiently for palletized international delivery to the UK.
Final Configuration
39,000+
bags shipped
27
pallet for the UK
1
bags shipped
The packed pallet measured approximately 1,200 × 1,000 × 960 mm, with a gross weight of about 550 kg and a volume of 1.15 m³. The 26 full cartons above were the production estimate. The final shipment comprised 27 cartons.
A Practical Custom Bag-on-Roll Solution
During recent
Related Project Resources
This case involved custom bag sizing, adhesive closures, printing, gusset development, production testing and international shipping.
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