There are tons of inventions that may be small in scale but are big in economical value. Simply put, finding another use for an item that will go in the trash is a huge value.
There are multiple web sites available to help beginner inventors get their start, such as Kickstarter, Invent Help and Indie Gogo and millions of ideas flying around that can become the next huge breakthrough.
A small invention for the lighting world is the U2 Adapter. The campaign is found on Indie Gogo at http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/universal-uno-lamp-shade-adapter-u2-adapter. It changes one style of lamp with a socket and shade (Uno Shade) to another style of lamp having the fitting of standard lamp shades (Spider and Harp). This gives people the ability to reuse an existing lamp but not to be confined to the small, limited shades that fit.
In general people like and need choices especially in a time of disposable products that allow them to keep existing goods but have the option to update and change out styles to fit their current and ever-changing needs.
You can follow the U2 Adapter campaign and donate as little as $1.00 to get this product into development.
These little inventions lead to little changes in mindset which can lead to huge changes in product development, design and production, plus it gives consumers a very good reason to reuse existing products and keeps those out of our landfills.
Resources: Kickstarter, Indie Gogo and Invent Help