Hello friends! Let's have a chat about the little things, shall we?
We all know we need to get away from single-use plastic. Most people think about disposable cups, water bottles, straws, utensils, etc. But what about pens?
In the US alone, 1.6 billion disposable pens are trashed annually. 1.6 billion!!! That's almost 5 pens for every single human in the United States, per year. You may think that's not a lot, but altogether that's a ton of plastic.
So, what should we do? Well I for one, keep my refillable pens and just buy new cartridges for them. I've had these trusty Pentel RSVP pens since the mid-90s, and I just got more refills for them now, 30 years later:
I went on a quest for refills for several of my favorite old pens, and I actually have some advice about which brands to stick with. Pentel? Great. 30 years later and I'm still buying refills. Parker pens are also great: I have a vintage metal Parker pen that I inherited from my deceased grandfather decades ago, and I'm still able to get refills for that one, too.
Pilot? I actually bought these old refills off of eBay, because they stopped making them! Oh they still make this exact style of pen, but the refills are nowhere to be found new. That itself infuriates me. You still make the exact same pen. There is no reason to not sell the refills, too.
Bic? Also no. Both my vintage Bic Clic pens from the 90s, which have been discontinued, and my just bought last year Bic Gelocity multicolored pens (you can find black and blue refills for Gelocity pens, but not all the colors. I bought the whole set thinking I could find refills for them) were duds looking for refills. Bic is famous for disposable everything (pens, lighters, razors), but if you're going to sell a refillable product, you should sell the damn refills for it!
I used to have a massive stash of pens, that I have been using up. Most were disposable, because I used to work in healthcare and y'all I tell you, you end up with so many drug company pens in your scrubs pockets, lol. It's like magic.
Since working on decluttering my stuff, I've used up almost all of those pens, and am sticking with my refillables now. The disposables will be taken to the hard -to-recycle station:
I was actually organizing the things to go to the recycle station yesterday, so I can go soon since I have a whole bag of things to take. You can see all the pens and refill cartridges are inside the air filter.
My one issue now is colored pens for art. Among the drug company pens in there, are several Sakura and other brand colored pens. I thought I had solved that with the Gelocity pens, but no. Does anyone have a recommendation for refillable colored art pens? I would be appreciative. :)
So, tl;dr Pentel and Parker, thank you for making refills for your refillable pens, and not discontinuing them. You have a customer for life!