Holstee has teamed up with Conserve India for a colorful new take on its popular wallet. While the original wallets were made from newspaper, the new Delhi Rang purses are crafted from colored plastic shopping bags.
Conserve India has a long history of reducing India’s waste and helping the country’s poor by turning plastic bags into fashionable items. Holstee is supporting the cause by providing fair wages, education, and health care to India’s “rag pickers” and their families. These poor people collect the plastic bags from the streets, clean them, and sort them, before stitching them together to make the wallets.
The wallets are named for the Indian city where the plastic bags are sourced, while “rang” is the Hindi word for color. Personally I think those rainbow hues are a real improvement over the more muted color scheme we saw on the newspaper originals. What do you think?
Their minimalist style won’t suit serious shopaholics, but I think they’re cute enough, and affordable enough, to forgive their practical limitations.
The Delhi Rang purses are available for $25 on the Holstee website. Ten percent of that price will benefit Kiva, a group which helps to financially support entrepreneurs working in the developing world.
