Seen at October's Wired NextFest: Ragbag, sharp shoulder bags with lofty ecological and economic-justice cred. To create the line, Dutch parent firm iD-L partnered with NGO Conserve India to hire ragpickers in the slums of Delhi to collect the trash plastic bags, which are sorted by color and pressed together into the base material for the company's multi-colored shoulder bags, wallets and organizers.
The enterprise creates work for the ragpickers, people in collection centers, and the fabricators who create the final product -- about 60 to 120 jobs in all so far, according to Business in Development Network. iD-L recently won a European Business Award for the Environment for its' combination of green product development with international cooperation.
Transforming trashed plastic bags in India into attractive and reusable shoulder bags is an especially compelling story, when you consider how an overload of the non-biodegradable sacks have contributed to massive floods in Indian cities, such as the 2005 floods in Maharashtra state that killed over 1,100 and damaged millions of dollars in property.
It looks like only a couple U.S. stores are carrying Ragbag, and none in New York City...how about it, local eco-retailers?
Images: ragbag.nl
