Why it belongs in ORBIS
Fair-trade accessories brand founded in 2005 by Siem Haffmans after meeting Delhi designer Anita Ahuja, who pioneered pressing waste plastic bags into sheets; Ragbag pays India-based ragpickers and fabricators to turn saris, tea sacks and plastic waste into totes.
Ragbag was founded in 2005 by industrial designer Siem Haffmans, after a trip to Delhi for a conference on sustainable design where he met Anita Ahuja, who had developed a process for pressing collected plastic waste bags into usable sheet material. Ragbag's products are made across different regions of India from upcycled materials: a Delhi Collection from plastic and canvas waste, a Tamil Nadu Collection from used tea sacks, and a Calcutta Collection from recycled cotton and saris. Raw materials are gathered by ragpickers, who along with fabricators are paid a fair price for their work, following the ten principles of the World Fair Trade Organization, with production partners belonging to Fair Trade Forum India.