When did Pens become Disposable?

 I was feeling really proud of myself yesterday. A few years ago, I had noticed that Staples recycles pens - everything from feltpens and highlighters to pencils and pens. "Ah-hah!" I thought to myself, "I will set up a pen recycling station at home, and we can recycle all of our writing utensils!"

So I did. I found a box that would work, cut a narrow slot in the top and over the last few years we have
been dropping all of our dead pens into this box. Yesterday, I noticed that the box was pretty full and decided it was time to empty it, bag up the pens and put them by the door, ready for a Staples run.

 We had a LOT of pens in there! I decided to count them all... just so I could report on that... and we had 90 pens to be recycled. I felt quite proud of myself... saving 90 plastic pens from the landfill where they will linger for centuries and leach toxins into the environment.

Except... all of the reading and blogging I've been doing kind of stopped me in my tracks. Why do I even need to recycle pens? Why is there even such a "thing" as "disposable pens"? Why not use a non-disposable pen... or... since disposable pens already have an adjective, obviously a plain old pen, should be non-disposable.

 I actually have a real pen sitting on my desk in its holder on a little marble stand. I got it for high school graduation, decades ago. It's a Schaeffer pen and while I don't use it a lot, over the years I have had to replace the inner cartridge when the pen runs out of ink. One of the reasons I don't use it a lot is because it's a ball point pen and there is just a bit too much resistance when I write. I much prefer roller ball pens or liquid gel pens, something that flows effortlessly across the page.

I rummaged around to see what I had in the way of pens (real pens... not disposable ones) and... I have a couple. But again... they are ball points and I don't like the friction.

Three refillable pens and a cartridge,
plus two disposables.

I also found a bunch of pencils... not just the wooden ones, but also the mechanical ones. I'm not sure who invented mechanical pencils with those ultra thin leads but they are amazing. I love how I never have to sharpen them and then sharpen them again because the lead keeps breaking. But... they too, are encased in plastic. Mind you, I did find one metal mechanical pencil in my desk, which I should maybe give pride of place in my pen/pencil holder... rather than my favourite Staedler. The Staedler has been with me a long time, I took it out into the bush many, many times while working in forestry and never lost it. It's become kind of a "thing"... me and that pencil. If I took the metal one out in the bush, I'd be terrified of losing it... but a plastic one... meh, no big deal.

And maybe that's the thing... disposable pens are cheap. We can have a bunch of them lying around the house (and we do), ready whenever needed. If I were to buy a fancy fountain pen or a Lamy 2000 pen ($250!!), I'd be terrified of losing it, misplacing it, or having my partner wander off with it. Disposable pens... meh, not such a big deal if I lose them...

There is, however, a price to be paid for that convenience and peace of mind... all of those plastic disposable pens have to go somewhere. Which is beginning to weigh on me. Yes, recycling all those plastic pens is better than tossing them in the garbage but... it would be much better to stop of the continual flow of dead pens.

The funny thing is... growing up, I used a fountain pen in elementary and high school. It was a Pelikan and came with little plastic cartridges of refill ink. Those cartridges are not ideal from an environemntal point of view but you can also get converters that allow you to refill your fountain pen with ink from a bottle. I think a friend of mine in the UK must use a fountain pen because she is forever sending letters with very fancy ink (like turqouise with gold flecks) and gets the ink in fancy bottles.

I did a bit of research into non-disposable pens (I still feel like I need to put that qualifier in there)... and there are some recommendations for cheaper fountain pens that won't break the bank (like a Lamy 2000). On top of that, if fountain pens aren't your thing, you can get rollerballs with refills as well... which is once step farther away from disposable. I'm thinking I might try a fountain pen... although none are available at my local Staples...

I did a bit more digging and decided to go with a simple Lamy Safari fountain pen... including a bottle of ink and a converter. This is a bigger step than I was planning when I started this blog but... if it works out... I'm hoping it reduces my environmental footprint.