Allie’s Answers

For some reason, I never get rid of used up pens. I put them back in the pen cup thinking they will magically work again the next time I give them a try. Of course, there’s no magic at work, and when I need to take a message or write down a phone number, I’m stuck trying to carve words and numbers into the paper with the point of the pen because it’s still inkless.

I finally broke down the other day and bought a new pen. Two actually. They came packaged together.

Zebra (the company that no longer makes my all time favorite pen, the ZebRoller 2000) has come out with an eco line that’s pretty impressive.

Now, if you have working pens in your house, there’s no need to rush out and buy these just because they’re eco-friendly, but if your house is scattered with pen carcasses too, Zebra eco pens are a good buy.

The Sarasa Clip Retractable GEL Pen writes almost as well as the ZebRoller 2000 did (sigh). The ink dispenses smoothly, and the overall pen construction has a good balance and nice rubber grip. The pen is made from 80% post consumer waste, and there’s even a chart on the website to show you what types of waste the different parts of the pen are made from. The pen is refillable, and the packaging is made from 100% post-consumer waste. The only thing I’m not sure about is the ink — I don’t know what it’s made from or how green it is. I’d love to see them work with soy-based inks in the future.

Zebra Eco products are available at Staples. While Staples is also full of paper made from virgin wood and all sorts of other less than eco-friendly products too, it’s nice to see greener products being introduced in more mainstream settings. And it goes to show that you can make greener choices even when it comes to a small purchase like a pen.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 12th, 2008 at 12:15 am and is filed under Going Green. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.