Cloth Bags today have ceased to be those plain, simple things of yesteryear. They are now available in a plethora of materials and fabrics. Jute, plastic, denim, rayon, leather; name it and you can have it! Shoulder bags, burlap bags, gym bags, handbags, backpacks ? the variety is a little overwhelming! Among all the different kinds of bags available, cloth bags are the most trendy as well as efficient. Plastic bags may look good too, but they are not environment friendly. It is tricky to recycle plastic, thereby hampering the environment. Cloth bags on the other hand, pose no problem in this regard. Apart from being eco-friendly, the range of fabrics that one can choose from is absolutely amazing!

There are denim bags for the youth and the fashion conscious. What better way to make a statement in college than having a fashionable denim bag casually slung on your shoulders! For the intellectual and arty types, there is the quintessential jute bag. What is the picture that comes to your mind when you think of a journalist or a writer Bang on! A man/woman wearing a ?kurta?, with a jute bag dangling from one shoulder! It?s funny how we have come to associate different bags with different people and professions! Jute bags for the writers, leather bags for the office goers and denim bags for the young things in college!

Cloth Bags Project - Did you know that there is a project titled the ?Cloth Bag Project? in the country of New Zealand This projects aims to spread awareness among the people about protecting their environment to enable it to remain lush and green. As an aside, it might interest you to learn that there are more sheep in New Zealand than people! Isn?t it apt that such a beautiful and comparatively less crowded country should aim to keep its environs at their very best! Coming back to the project, it encourages New Zealanders to use Cloth Bags in favor

of other materials so that the environment remains clean and protected. Picture a waste dump rotting and emanating sickening smells flourishing among the green grass meadows of this country! Just thinking about gives one the shudders! This project is a commendable step taken by some of the supermarket chains in the country. Closer home, in India too, if I recollect correctly, supermarkets had ceased to provide plastic bags to customers, supplying them with brown paper bags instead! Sadly enough, the trend did not last long enough to make any noteworthy difference! Paper, as you may know, is easily recyclable, and would have been an ideal substitute for harmful plastic!

Cloth Bags also make unique gift objects. Not only can the bag itself be gifted, you can also put exquisite little gifts into the bag and then gift them collectively. Beats having to gift wrap with packaging paper any day.

A fabric that is a great deal in demand these days is the good old denim. Earlier, denim was a material that was considered to be best suited for jeans. In the present day, it?s a different story altogether! Denim is used for almost every imaginable accessory, in addition to jeans, skirts and other clothes. There are shoes made of denim, belts made of denim and what have you! Denim bags stand out as a distinctive category in this melee. Denim has a timeless value. How many of us haven?t thrown out our favorite pair of jeans, even though they may be eons old I would hazard a confident guess and say close to none! Imagine having the same option with your bag! I mean, the older it got, the trendier it would look! Possessing a denim bag offers a wide range of possibilities. You can add your own personal touch to it by adding sequins, a logo, your name, or anything else you can possibly think of. Oh yes, possessing is the correct word! Ask any woman what her bag means to her and you will know what exactly I?m talking about! Bags are no less than a passion for most women nowadays, coming second maybe only to shoes! To make matters simpler, denim is now available in an astonishing range of colors. Gone are the days when blue was the quintessential denim shade. Black, green, gray, white and even pink and the like are in abundance these days!

»If you crave clean and fresh air to breathe,

»Bags of cloth are the way to go,

»Let the environmentalist within you seethe,

»And trees shall grow with the seeds you sow!

»Plastic will only impede in the long run,

»Do you desire to see Mother Nature go to waste

»Errors in the past are already done,

»Think with wisdom, not with foolish haste!

»Denim, jute, canvas, cotton and more,

»From an ever-increasing plethora you can choose,

»Let plastic be a part of folklore,

»With a bag in cloth, never can you lose!

Nowadays, you also have the choice of picking up a waterproof bag. This ensures that come rain or shine, your companion shoulder bag will always hold you in good stead! With some proper care and maintenance, who knows, your much-cherished bag might become your companion for life!