Vivienne Westwood would delight in a fashion studio that looked like this one; the designer, known to clothe models in garbage bags and safety pins, will likely feel at home at Plot No. 234 in the Footwear Park of the Bahadurgarh industrial area, Haryana. Plastic bags and sheets, worn-out tyres, car seat belts, and other waste material lie in heaps on the floor. In the middle are Anita and Shalabh Ahuja, and their team of 70 people, making handbags, purses, shoes, belts, and the like. Every month, 8,000 to 10,000 items, priced between $5 (Rs 281) and $18, are shipped to 1,200 stores, such as Anthropologie, Crate and Barrel, and Conran, in Europe and North America.

The Ahujas’ company, called Conserve Handmade Recycled Plastic, was set up eight years ago to make these items out of waste sourced from city dumps and landfills.

Before that, in 1998, the couple set up Conserve India, a not-for-profit organisation to get ragpickers in Delhi the right price for the waste they collected. Shalabh Ahuja, an engineer by profession, liked to tinker with machines, and in 2003, he devised a machine to hotpress layers of cleaned plastic bags and fuse them into a rexine-like material. From there, it was a short step to setting up Conserve Handmade Recycled Plastic, and training the ragpickers to make fancy, fashionable products. Conserve is no longer a charity, but an out-and-out commercial entity directly involving ragpickers.

The designs are Anita Ahuja’s—she’s assisted by some interns.

The economic slowdown has left their exports unscathed because many global brands are pledged to reduce their carbon footprint and improve workers’ living standards in developing nations. Conserve’s products address both issues and are certified as fair-trade, a label that promotes such producers from developing countries.

Conserve’s products aren’t available in India yet because the cost of retail space is exorbitant. Besides, well-known Indian brands won’t give Conserve any manufacturing credit. But now, things might be changing: There’s an investor who wants to set up a Conserve shop here. Before that, Anita Ahuja plans to hold a show in New Delhi in December. The Ahujas believe it’s just a matter of time before such products get hip in India.

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