The write stuff

Have you ever wondered how pencils and pens are made? Have you ever wondered what happens to the little stubs or the pen that ran out of ink and you trashed?

We have clients who swear by the pen as the most popular giveaway item for their clients. These are not fabulously posh pens, but pretty cheap functional pens. The kinds you can lose and not worry about too much. In fact I think our pen crazy clients have clients of their own who are somewhat careless with their pens – after all, they can always go back and get another one for free! There are huge drawbacks – branded pens have to go to the printers and have names printed on them. Lots of carbon footprints in the form of delivery to the printers, delivery back to us to check the job, delivery to the clients and a bunch of nasty solvents for the ink.

I have recently been contemplating the life cycle of the average ball point and all I keep thinking of is the billions of little plastic tubes that are filling up the landfills of the world (along with all our other junk). Without a doubt, the inexpensive ballpoint pen has become one of those everyday objects that we just don’t really think about until some ratfink takes the one next to the phone.

I am a bit of a pen snob. I like to find a writing instrument that works well for my style. One with which I can doodle successfully while soothing the shattered psyches of clients who forgot to order their printing until the very last minute. Good pens and pencils are comforting. But then that little Jiminy Cricket conscience kicks in….”where do dead pens and pencils go?”

And why should I care about pencils – they are made of wood aren’t they? They will eventually biodegrade after the paint and varnish has worn away. But what about the tree they originally came from? Pencils are not made from just any old wood. In the beginning of pencil manufacturing, the favoured timber for pencils was Red Cedar as it was aromatic and did not splinter when sharpened. In the early 1900s supplies of Red Cedar were dwindling so that pencil manufacturers were forced to recycle the wood from cedar fences and barns to maintain supply.  It was soon discovered that Incense Cedar,  was a suitable alternative and most pencils today are made from this timber which is grown in managed forests. Over 14 billion pencils are manufactured worldwide annually.

Okay, so the forests are managed, but what if there were alternatives?

There are…

Recycled paper pencils are avaliable. The part that is usually made of wood in conventional pencils is made from compressed recycled paper. It works just as well and you can even recycle the shavings when you sharpen the pencil. They are nice pencils to use – softish, but not smudgy.

And…

Biodegradable pens! These fabulously inventive writing instruments are made from cardboard and biodegradable plastic. The only bit that is going to last forever is the metal tip! I have tested them. The cardboard is sturdy – as study as the plastic pens and they are avaliable in a variety of different coloured tops and bottoms. They write perfectly well and we can brand them with a lazer engraver!  In other words the client’s logo gets burned into the pen. Yes the lazer engraver uses electricity – but compare 10 seconds of engrave per pen to kilometers of delivery gas plus ink solvents and the moral dilemma is solved. The paper pencils can be branded the same way too.

Jiminy Cricket can go and bug someone else!

Can fashion save the world?

The darker side of a treeless society

We are all very excited about Earth Hour, coming up this weekend. I have been doing some musing about its specific implications and applications in South Africa.

In South Africa, having the lights out for only one hour is a bit of a treat after last year’s enforced load shedding which saw us twiddling our thumbs in the dark for 4 hours twice a week. No doubt the execs at Eskom are now feeling they deserve global accolades for enforcing these measures. I am wondering if this hour is making Eskom sweat. What happens when we all switch the lights back on? Is our dubious power supplier going to melt under the combined demand of the entire country?

So What?

After all the hype and publicity and enthusiasm generated  by this event, I wonder if it will really make that much difference once the lights are turned back on and we carry on with our consumption driven lives.

How about this?

We have come up with a positive way to help the planet. Howl at the Moon Design has always supported Food and Trees for Africa, by donating a tree through its treebucks programme. Now its sister company HowlingMad, has designed a range of very cool “Tree-shirts”. For each “tree-shirt” purchased, we will donate a tree to be planted through Food and Trees for Africa. It’s easy, the designs are great, and Food and Trees for Africa are incredibly excited about this initiative.

Wear a “tree-shirt”, plant a tree, help slow down climate change.

And the lighter side