Gorgeous recycled old rubbish: Andrea Garland vintage tins...

Happened upon these lovely reused vintage tins in Liberty recently, now refilled with body balms, lip balms & sore muscle rubs. And once it's finished you can send it back to be refilled again.
Admittedly they ARE a tad pricey at around 30 pounds each, but you DO get a lovely antique to keep. And the refills are less than half the original price.

More here:

http://andreagarland.co.uk/#/vintage-range/4528891929

Sustainable Business by Design conference

Ok I know it was about two months ago now but here's some of the highlights from the highly inspirational event at Somerset College...

http://www.sustainable-design-uk.com

Brilliantly hosted by the eloquent Andrew Knutt, the day was mostly filled with design industry related speakers, interspersed with breakout sessions by each speaker, giving attendees a chance to discuss chosen topics in smaller groups.

There were presentations from the Design Council, the very amusing & entertaining Mark Shayler of eco3 - http://www.eco3.co.uk - ex Asda Environmental Manager. Good to hear a less serious view on sustainability.

Also speaking were John Boult, John Luff & Lynne Elvins.

My personal favourite however was Peter Hopton of VeryPC - http://www.very-pc.co.uk - and his story of how he got the BroadLeaf PC produced in the most environmental & ethical way humanly possible. From removing harmful chemical flame retardants, asking for the wires not to be individually bagged, to sourcing the Yorkshire chassis manufacturer (using Icelandic Aluminium), all put together in Sheffield.

And it uses half the energy of the greenest big brand option for the same performance, and less energy when asleep than some PC's do when turned off!

A real genuine & humble green genius.

Screw you Apple...

I'd had occasional problems with the scroll ball in my mighty mouse, but had always managed to fix it with some bashing on the desk and upside-down blowing!

However, after a couple of years the mouse finally stopped scrolling completely - no amount of desk-whacking, up-blowing or even feeding with alcohol would bring it back to life.

I tried gently prizing the mouse apart but to no avail, it seems apple don't WANT you to fix them! So, with my refusal to let apple (& consumerism) win, I turned to Google.

...a couple of searches later and I was following a Youtube video (of which there are many) of a helpful chap dissecting, cleaning and reassembling a mighty mouse. Pretty darn easy, though you DO need to 'break' the ring around the bottom and glue it back on afterwards.
It was easy to see why it would no longer scroll - there was thick dirt & fluff stuck to the tiny wheels (see pics below).
The whole process was a little fiddly but it worked perfectly again, just like new, in about 20 minutes.

How many of these plastic mighty mouses have been chucked in landfill so far (and replaced by a new one), when they could have been so easily fixed?

Then today in the news I saw this story of Apple attempting once again to stop customers self-fixing with the introduction of a 'pentalobe' screw:

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/01/pentalobe-screw-apple-war.php