The Fountain Pen Fights Back.
People of a certain age will recall being forced to write with a fountain pen when they started secondary school. I recall that we would go to great lengths to be allowed to use a biro, but mostly we just used our fountain pens. Initially, everybody used bottles of ink, we even had a dedicated ink cupboard at the front of our form room, but cartridges were becoming ever more popular. When I think of the number of cartridges I must have used I feel quite faint. But worse, when I think of the number of practically disposable ballpoints I’ve used in my life I feel positively ashamed.I admit I hadn’t used my fountain pen in years until a couple of weeks back when I had occasion to write a letter (yes by hand and on water-marked writing paper and everything) but now I’m a convert.
I couldn’t face my son’s bedroom to find a pen, so I dug out my old fountain pen, which has been languishing in the top drawer of filing cabinet for years, along with a glass bottle of Quink ink. It was actually a real pleasure to write with. Despite being a leftie and having the tendency to smudge, my handwriting was much improved by it. Now it gets filled everyday and I’ve emptied my handbag of all the miscellaneous biros that seem to multiply in there. But what shall I do with them?
Where do ballpoints go to die?
Go on, admit it. There’s a tub or a box or drawer or shelf or something similar in your household where ballpoints go to die.
My household is way past the Ballpoint Pen Event Horizon.
A couple of years ago my brother-in-law changed jobs and in clearing his desk he found a plastic-shopping-bagful of ballpoint pens which he’d acquired over 27 years of travelling the world, staying in hotels and going to trade fairs. Most of them are now in a large freezer box on my son’s desk for him to use for school, but I defy any child, even one struck by a writing bug, which my son certainly is not, to use up so many ballpoint pens during one lifetime.
And yes – of course – they are all made out of plastic.
Collateral Damage
A few months ago, a company I work for quite regularly told me it was sending me some collateral. Be honest, do you know what that means? I certainly didn’t! It transpires it was a pack of marketing materials for schools, containing posters, stickers, pencils, clear plastic pencil cases and the ubiquitous plastic ballpoints. Even worse, the ballpoints had an additional feature of a (plastic) rubber tip you can use on a tablet or smartphone.
I know a ballpoint pen isn’t really an example of a single-use plastic item. Ideally, you should use them until the ink runs out and only then dispose of them. But every time you stay in a hotel or go to a conference or some training for work, the odds are that there is a freebie ballpoint on offer and how many of us find it next to impossible to resist a freebie? Most freebies are pretty cheap and only serve the purpose of keeping the giver’s branding in your eye-line. Most of us don’t care if we lose them the same day – they have little value – and let’s face it, we’ve all got that stash back at home.
Most banks now have a box of free, branded pens at each cashier point to help yourself. Yes – I’ve been guilty of helping myself occasionally, but it’s usually simply because I’m distracted, not because I want the pen. If they were still tethered to the counter as in days of yore, they wouldn’t get through so many. Generally, however, if I use one I drop it back in the top of the box afterwards. Because I don’t really need it. I have my stash.
So what can we do about it?
In reducing plastic waste, this is another easy win. It’s simply about reducing the demand.
- Use the pens you have already and say no to new ones. And tell them why you don’t want them. Companies with good environmental policies will catch on quickly and if they stop buying, they won’t be manufactured.
- Don’t buy disposable pens yourself. They are actually surprisingly expensive, I think, for what they are, so actually investing in a decent pen is a saving in the relatively short term.
- Get yourself one decent pen – or several if you want one per handbag/jacket pocket/whatever. Make sure you can either refill it from a bottle of ink or buy refills for it (ideally don’t buy a cartridge pen because the cartridges run out more quickly than, say, a roller ball or ballpoint refill and there’s quite a lot of plastic used in their construction).
If you’re in marketing or are a buyer for a company, why not try to think of new freebies? Stick to pencils, for example when it comes to writing implements.
I’m liking my existing fountain pen, so my son can use up the biros – he prefers them anyway to writing with a fountain pen. But I will make sure in future there are no more plastic pens added to our stash.