You know I love my eco-friendly products. From buying plant-based laundry detergent to making my own foaming hand soap, I do what I can for the planet and my conscious.
When I heard about Paper Mate‘s new line of biodegradable ball pens and mechanical pencils, I knew I had to (literally) get my hands on them. Paper Mate sent me each to try out.
So what is so cool about them? Um, you can stick them in the ground and they can decompose. Really. Once the ink and lead runs out, I am totally taking them apart and popping them in the garden. My kids and I can check back on them over the next few seasons to see them disappear before our eyes. Paper Mate wanted me to go ahead and plant the biodegradable parts now so I could show you, but I couldn’t let a good pen and pencil go to waste! You’ll have to check back in with me.
The biodegradable components of these are made from Mirel, a type of bioplastic made from corn sugar. I’ve been interested in Mirel ever since I received a Target gift card made from it. (Tip: when you have a gift card, hold onto it. Most stores will let you add value to it thus creating less waster.)
I know what you are asking: so how are the pens and pencils? It’s all well and good to be biodegradable, but do they write worth a darn?
Yes. The ball pens write very smooth, a must in my book. They also feel nice in the hand. I am a big fan of mechanical pencils and I liked that the pencil came with extra lead and more than generous extra erasers. (I hate when I get a mechanical pencil and it doesn’t have extra erasers.) Score! And the extra supplies are housed in Mirel, which you can also biodegrade.
Of course some parts of the pens and pencils can’t decompose…you toss those in the garbage. But when you see the trash vs. Mirel parts, you’ll be impressed I think.
