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.