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iFixIt teardowns

The iFixIt teardowns provide "exploded views" of everyday products and help industrial designers understand how products can be optimally designed for assembly and disassembly.

Posters: Sustainable Refrainables

From Sustainable Refrainables, the 2nd Core77 Design Arena Community Challenge: a poster design competition celebrating words of persuasion.

First World Problems

Many industrial designers tend to focus on "first world problems", considering these trivial inconveniences among the privileged as design problems requiring design solutions. Come on, visit the third world one day...

We-Bike: pedal-power for laptops

http://wewatt.be/index.html

PSS: Social bicycles

http://socialbicycles.com/

PSS: Toiletry refill stations

In the 1990s customers who bought bottled shampoo and conditioner at the Body Shop had the incentive of refilling those bottles in the shop, for less dollars because of the savings from reusing packaging. There were 900 Body Shop "refill bars" in 40 countries. However in 2002 this PSS was discontinued due to only 1% of customers participating.

The Enticements Soap Shop of Norwood in Adelaide allows customers to refill their own bottles.

In 2010 The Refill Shoppe in California revived the idea of consumer refilling of shampoo, conditioner, window cleaner, laundry detergent and other products.

In 2012 Use Me Products started their Filling Station in Maine where salon customers can refill their empty bottles of cleansers and moisturizers.

PSS: Fabric softener refill stations

Eziserv in-store dispensing systems for fabric softener are available in ASDA chain supermarkets in the UK and at Carrefour Shanghai. Their self-dispensing machines and specially designed 10x refillable pouches have received the "Innovation of the Year" honours during the 2010 UK Packaging Awards. However in 2012 the ASDA supermarket chain admitted that their trial was disappointing, as consumers rarely used the pouches more than 2x. The biggest barriers to mass consumer adoption are "inconvenience, mess and cost".

KegMama also had a concept for refillable pouches to be refilled at in-store dispensers.

Ecover of Belgium continues to offer their container refill service in independent health food stores and local cooperative shops. Washing up detergents, fabric conditioner, laundry detergent and multi-surface cleaner are available for refilling.

Sun and Earth Cleaner Living also has gravity-fed refill stations for laundry detergent and fabric softeners in various cooperative stores around the USA.

Staedtler Lumocolor park+write refill station

The Staedtler Lumocolor park + write set is fixed to the whiteboard and makes it easy for users to "park" their whiteboard markers for refilling by capillary action, thereby avoiding the waste resulting from dried up markers.

PSS: Milk Refill Stations

Fresh milk vending machines are available in many parts of the world:

Milk refill stations were around in German supermarkets since the 1980s.

In India villagers go to the token milk station with their stainless steel buckets for their morning's milk supply, such as this one from Mother Dairy.

The Italian vending machine manufacturer Prometea SrL has their products all over Europe.

Plenty of videos of these milk vending machines in use can be found here.

Article: Shoppers' green fatigue vs in-store refilling

Read why in-store refilling is not well received by supermarket shoppers. http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/shoppers-green-fatigue-hits-refill-revolution-2198462.html

Video: Water bottle skylights

Competition: Design for Product Lifetime

All UNSW IDES students are encouraged to participate in the Core77 Student Challenge: Design for Product Lifetime

Video: Design for sustainable behaviour

Video: This is Your Life Cycle

Video: Affluenza

Publisher's description: Through revealing personal stories, expert commentary, hilarious old film clips, dramatized vignettes, and “anti-commercial” breaks, Affluenza examines the high cost of achieving the most extravagant lifestyle the world has ever seen. Last year, Americans, who make up only five percent of the world’s population, used nearly a third of its resources and produced almost half of its hazardous waste. Add overwork, personal stress, the erosion of family and community, skyrocketing debt, and the growing gap between rich and poor, and it’s easy to understand why some people say that the American Dream is no bargain. Many are opting out of the consumer chase, redefining the Dream, and making “voluntary simplicity” one of the top 10 trends of the ’90s. Affluenza is a one-hour television special that explores the high social and environmental costs of materialism and overconsumption.

©1998 Bullfrog Films. 56 min.

http://www.pbs.org/kcts/affluenza/show/show.html