The Commodity Chain of a Reusable Grocery Bag - Essay Example

Among the alternatives to traditional plastic grocery bags, the study of the Environmental Agency UK Draft Report showed that cotton bags have the lowest potential for global warming.  Compared to the traditional plastic grocery bags that are made from high-density polyethylene (HDPE), cotton bags can only pose be harmful to the environment after using it 131 times compared to HDPE bags usage of only 3 times (The Green Supply Chain Editorial Staff, 2011).

Cotton, which is the basic material of reusable cotton bags is grown in 90 countries but the four main producing countries of cotton were China, India, the USA, and Pakistan accounting for three-quarters of the world’s output of cotton (UNCTAD).  Most cotton bags however came from India and China due to the ready availability of raw materials (cotton) and cheap labor.

The process begins with the harvest of the soft fiber that grew around the seeds of cotton in a cotton plantation in India (or China).  The fiber is then spun into thread to make it into a yarn.  It is then weaved into a cotton cloth which can be later sewn into a cotton bag.

The plantation, harvest, spinning, weaving, and sewing are done in India (and China) due to the cheap cost of growing the cotton (land) and also the cheaper cost of labor.  Unlike other products where the several stages of production are separated, producing the cotton bag can be done in one country where a single or a few numbers of company can do the planting of the raw materials to produce the final goods because it only uses one raw material (cotton) and the process of its production is uncomplicated.  The process of producing it is however labor intensive which made it a competitive product of India and China because of its lower labor cost.

When the final product is already manufactured, the reusable cotton bags then undergo a process called supply chain (the latter part of the commodity chain), where it is distributed to grocery stores across the country.  The grocery stores in turn make these reusable cotton bags either counters for packing the groceries. 

Customers who frequent grocery stores to buy their supplies then use them and can reuse them again the next time they make their grocery purchases.