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RagBag

Ragbag is a collaboration between an Indian company that delivers raw materials, and designers in the Netherlands who conceive, make, and distribute stylish bags and wallets to Europe’s young urbanites.

Bags from rags

Ragbag proves that raw materials can come from unexpected places. And that new cooperative mixes of skills and expertise can successfully reward all parts of the product value chain. The Indian company Conserve works with more than 60 rag pickers, who collect plastic discarded bags and sell them to the collection centers. Plastic bags are washed, dried and separated by color. The plastic is pressed into thicker and more durable sheets that are cut and sewn to create Ragbag’s signature style.

“Ragbag has provided slum-dwellers in Delhi with increased income levels, while garbage is turned into colorful handbags, and wallets.”

Siem Haffmans
Designer
RagBag

It’s an even-handed mix; Conserve has invented the process that gives Ragbag the unique material, and Ragbag’s Netherlands-based designers design, brand, and set up retail distribution. Even-handedness is a thread running through the Ragbag value chain; Conserve pays collectors and manufacturers livable wages (by Indian standards) while European customers see their purchase as a positive contribution to a better way of doing things.

Ragbag’s designer and director acknowledges it’s a start: “I don’t think we can save the world by recycling some plastics. But you can begin and cooperate. The story makes people think.”

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