greenoffice
Penadoration
by Andrew Tan
I love
The pen experts (and myself) say the wise al-
ternative is to indulge in the subculture of the
fountain pens.
fountain pen. Because of their durability and
resilience to the effects of time, a good quality
fountain pen is environmentally friendly. A sin-
A sentence or signature written with a fountain gle, well-kept fountain pen can replace hun-
pen is more than the sum of its parts. It’s a na- dreds of disposables. They also will work for the
tural reflection of your mood. The writing point, duration of your lifetime, maybe longer, beco-
or nib, molds and flexes under the pressure of ming a great heirloom for future generations.
your hand as it glides across the paper. The pen
will translate your mind and heart. A heavy spirit
will appear on the page as a broad streak. A new
day, when the sun is shining and the penance is
light, the lines become thin and graceful.
Today, almost everyone who writes, at home,
office or school, writes with a disposable ball
point pen (or plastic refillable one). Let’s assu-
me there are 100 million office
workers in the United States.
Each person uses two different
pens in a month, even with re-
fillable ink sticks. These cheap
pens break, get lost, or stolen. That’s a total This makes the fountain pen extremely cost-
of twenty-four pens per year for every person. effective in the long term on a personal level.
For 100 million office workers (which discounts Over the course of their life, their initial pur-
everyone else who writes, students, blue-col- chase cost is offset by the savings, which pe-
lar, etc.) that’s 240 million pens thrown away rishable writing tools quickly consume. As a
into the garbage heap. Now throw in the rest of wise choice for anyone mindful of their habitat,
the world and we have a major problem. a fountain pen is a slap in the face of our throw-
away culture.
What about the plastic packaging? Cheap,
mass-produced pens create huge amounts of Fountain pens have character. A small change
non-biodegradable packaging waste. All this in pressure of the pen to paper, will produce a
stuff doesn’t disappear from the soil (it’s plas- variety of line variations, thick and thin, curvy
tic!) and who knows how much damage it does and splotchy. Whatever your fancy, the pen can
sitting in the Earth for thousands of years. do it; they are the hallmark of sophistication.
50 OUR GREEN BOOK
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