Pens + sustainability

[amk]

I've just started watching the NHK Japanology programme on stationery and that got me thinking about the ecological impact of our pen and ink choices.

- precious woods: I know Pierre at Desiderata stopped using some hardwoods as a result of sustainability concerns.

- disposables: mainly applies to BIC and gel pens but I wonder what the carbon footprint of the V-Pen is, great product though it happens to be?

- inks - what goes into them? if I tip the remains of a mouldy bottle down the sink, what is actually going down there? alternatively I could try putting Diamine Pumpkin in the vegetable bed to see if anything will grow.

Who knows some of the answers?

I'd also be interested to know if there are ways for pen makers to have a positive impact, for instance by supporting sustainable forestry. Textile companies now do a lot of work with small local projects ... stationery companies appear to be doing rather more.

I suspect my pen collection is not a massive user of resources... but I'm intrigued ny the fact that we don't often talk about this aspect of pens, though we talk a lot about air miles of food imports, carbon footprint of housimg and fuel efficiency of cars.

[inklord]

...nano pigment inks are to be disposed of in a responsible manner when not used up, for example through a municipal special waste collection. vegetable resin and natural hard rubber are biodegradable. buying durable, high quality pens and maintaining them well prevents garbage. and re-purposing packaging materials is important: my LAMY boxes (cardboard!) hold everything from cartridges to SD cards and pen parts, and Franklin-Cristoph's zippered pen pouches are a great example for waste-reduced packaging since the package itself becomes a 20-$-value pen pouch that can also hold other accessories, watches 35mm or less etc. that's about all i know about these issues...

[amk]

Oh goodness yes, I hadn't even thought about packaging!

I suspect the worst offenders there are the blister pack cheapies. Whereas I managed to pick up a lovely Graf von Faber Castell box from a sale - no pen in it, alas, but the lady who sold it me had been using it as a jewellery box for years!

[although]

Vintage pens FTW!

[catbert]

There was a related discussion on the Pen Economics blog a while back: Are fountain pens good for the environment? (http://www.peneconomics.com/blog/2016/9/16/are-fountain-pens-good-for-the-environment)

[amk]

Thanks for the link Catbert. That made a fascinating read.

[Paddler]

If your ink is getting moldy, it is biodegradable. As a matter of fact, it is already bio-degrading.

[RWS]

[QUOTE=inklord;260996]...nano pigment inks are to be disposed of in a responsible manner when not used up, for example through a municipal special waste collection.

I wasn't aware that ink was made with nano particles.

Apart from disposing of unwanted ink, what happens when paper is de-inked for recycling? Do the nano particles go into the ecosystem with the washed out inks?

And if the paper is sent to landfill and eventually degrades, do the nano particles leach out into the ecosystem?

[Kulprit]

[QUOTE=inklord;260996]...nano pigment inks are to be disposed of in a responsible manner when not used up, for example through a municipal special waste collection.

I wasn't aware that ink was made with nano particles.

Apart from disposing of unwanted ink, what happens when paper is de-inked for recycling? Do the nano particles go into the ecosystem with the washed out inks?

And if the paper is sent to landfill and eventually degrades, do the nano particles leach out into the ecosystem?

Why would nano-pigments be treated any differently than any other pigments?


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[RWS]

If nano-pigments contain very small particles of plastics, the particles will degrade of a very long time. They are too small to be filtered out at waste water treatment plants. so they run right through the water system and eventually end up in the oceans. Some are saying that the oceans are like a plastic soup. There is concern that everything that lives in the oceans will consume them, and they will enter the human food chain.

Nano particles used to be used in cosmetics, to fill the cracks that show with age, but that has stopped now.

[AzJon]

If nano-pigments contain very small particles of plastics, the particles will degrade of a very long time. They are too small to be filtered out at waste water treatment plants. so they run right through the water system and eventually end up in the oceans. Some are saying that the oceans are like a plastic soup. There is concern that everything that lives in the oceans will consume them, and they will enter the human food chain.

Nano particles used to be used in cosmetics, to fill the cracks that show with age, but that has stopped now.

Fabulous. I'll be sticking with my iron-gall inks when some level of permanence is called for, then.

[ethernautrix]

I've heard that plastics have already entered the human food chain and humans.

[RWS]

I've heard that plastics have already entered the human food chain and humans.

So have I, but I was not trying to be too alarmist.

[ethernautrix]

I've heard that plastics have already entered the human food chain and humans.

So have I, but I was not trying to be too alarmist.

I tried not to be alarmist by not mentioning AI and how we might become robot hybrids.

(Laughing, but, you know....)

I overheard IT guys talking about the next development under way: Emotional Artificial Intelligence (EAI), teaching AI empathy.

I can't even....

[RWS]

To my generation and background, AI means Artificial Insemination. Is that how we will become robot hybrids?

[pajaro]

Get a Parker 51. Even your children probably won't be throwing it away.