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Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Day 11: Use a Re-Fillable Pen!

Apparently, according to Kim McKay and Jenny Bonnin's True Green @ Work: 100 Ways You Can Make the Environment Your Business, Americans buy and toss (or lose if they are anything like me) 5.1 billion pens a year. Wowza -that's 770 tons of plastic waste every year. Imagine the energy and resources that go into making all that plastic. Imagine how long it will be sitting in the landfill for...

Now, those of you who have ever sat next to me in a lecture know that I take a LOT of notes! So, I am definitely running through dozens of pens annually.

The other day I went to the campus bookstore and bought this nifty pen:



It has four colours, perfect for taking aesthetically pleasing notes, and is refillable! So, when it runs dry, instead of tossing the whole contraption, I just pull out the empty ink cartridge (is that what they are called?) and replace it with a new one. It's not exactly the best solution, as I still have to toss the empty plastic cartridge and roller-tip, but it is better than throwing out the whole pen!


Do you have any other suggestions for how I can reduce my pen-waste?




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2 comments:

  1. Paul A.January 12, 2011 at 4:05 AM

    I like this! Toss away disposable razors, pens, and many other things.

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  2. Hack On WheelsJanuary 16, 2011 at 11:38 PM

    My solution is to use a pencil! I hardly ever use pens and, as a result, I never seem to use a pen enough to run out of ink (before I lose it).

    I would be interested to know what is more efficient (environmentally): pencil or pen?

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