Born of a desire to reduce India’s mountain of waste, improve energy efficiency, and help Delhi’s poorest out of the city’s slums, Conserve India created a process that turned plastic bags into high fashion. Conserve started as a fledgling recycling project but quickly adapted to confront one of the biggest environmental challenges in India – what to do with thousands of plastic bags that could not be composted or recycled locally. After much experimentation, the Conserve team hit upon the idea of not recycling, but upcycling by washing, drying, and pressing the bags into sheets. Handmade Recycled Plastic (HRP) was born and with the properties of leather, designs for handbags, wallets, shoes and belts quickly came flooding in. Conserve’s mission is simple: Use high fashion to support better lives for the poorest and a cleaner environment for all. Conserve India employs and trains hundreds of people from Delhi’s most disadvantaged communities to clear their streets of the plague of plastic bag waste. The product line has grown to include products made from old tires, discarded textiles, seatbelts, with some of the most astonishing products made from a mixture of materials. In addition to paying a fair wage to its employees, Conserve supports schools and health clinics in the local community.