The Swedish ready-to-wear brand, Uniforms for the Dedicated is the source of an initiative combining ecology and social involvement: the "Rag Bag". This carrier bag retains its primary function, i.e. carrying new purchases, in particular clothes. However, it has the specificity of being reversible and thus revealing its second function. The customer has the possibility of replacing the new clothing item in the "Rag Bag" with old, unwanted clothing.
The bag becomes a pre-paid envelope, all the customer needs to do it to take it to the post office. The donated clothes are then sent to the association chosen by the customer from a predefined list. This includes organisations such as Unicef, Myrorna, Rädda Barnen and Stockholm Stadsmission.
This project includes two poles of action - one is social, the other environmental. With the "Rag Bag", Uniforms for the Dedicated wants to reduce the number of plastic bags produced each year and their impact on the environment. The bag is reusable and biodegradable.
In addition, the impact of the production and distribution of plastic bags is becoming a major ecological problem that certain initiatives aim to reduce. In France, for example, the government has just adopted a law banning one-use plastic bags from the 1st January 2016. Lastly, these bags are not reserved for the Swedish brand, but can be ordered by distributors on the initiative site.
*Photos from the "Rag Bag" site: http://www.theragbag.se/
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