Green your Christmas: laptop bags

Here's an essential to give the ridiculously lucky people who receive laptops this Christmas -- a laptop bag. No, not just another identikit corporate black nylon bag. We're talking radically original eco ones made with recycled fabric such as old tyres and yacht sails, plus sustainable materials like cork and hemp.

On pure beauty grounds, top of our list would be Giles Miller's fabulous-looking £180 Corrugated Cardboard Laptop Case. The cardboard's partly recycled and partly from sustainable sources and the entire case is made in the UK. It also has a fine water resistant cover -- so don't worry, you can use them in the rain.

In the recycled camp, we're also loving the aptly-named Laptop sail bag (pictured), on sale for £110 at EcoCentric and made from old yacht sails. No, really -- a tag inside will even tell you which boat it came from.

Then there are the Tread cases for MacBooks, made from discarded Colombian truck tyres and brought to you by the people who made the solar gadget charger, Solio. We've lived with one of these before and love the workmanship and splash-proof qualities, though don't buy it for people with a phobia for the smell of rubber. We can't find a UK stockist, but it's down for $100 (£50) on Solio's online store.

For a cheaper recycled option, there's PlanetSilverchilli's £45 Recycled Rubber Laptop Bag, made in Mexico but not quite as handsome as the Tread bag.

Over in the eco materials department, two that caught our eye were the $95 (£43) Archetype cork bag for MacBooks (good 'cause cork trees regrow speedily after being harvested), and a £50 Hemp Laptop Bag, made from a hemp-cotton mix (good news since hemp grows easily without pesticides).

Finally, you could pick up a Fairtrade-certified laptop stand for £33 and put aside around a grand for next year to buy Asus' bamboo-covered Eco Book when it eventually hits the shops.

Related Links

• SmartPlanet