There’s nothing more satisfying than writing with a fountain pen. A rewarding experience, putting pen to paper and seeing your words flourish is only enhanced with this unique writing instrument. Higher cost is often among the top reasons people give for not making a more sustainable choice. If you can buy in bulk, you can save money overall. Thankfully, Simply Genius pens are affordable, functional, and partly biodegradable. They’ve made several improvements over a typical plastic pen, reducing the amount of plastic by more than half. These lightweight ballpoint pens have barrels made of recyclable cardboard. The tips and ends—in five colors—are made of a 50/50 mixture of BPA-free plastic and wheat stalk. ABS is derived from petroleum and is not biodegradable. Converters function like a piston, pushing or screwing into position. Following a few simple steps, they are incredibly easy to use: A refillable pen cuts down on waste because when your pen runs out of ink, you only need to discard and replace the inside of the pen—usually the plastic part that holds the ink that connects to the tip. Compared to a traditional disposable plastic pen, refillable pens reduce waste by about 50%. There are a lot of refillable ballpoint pens on the market and they’ve been around for decades. Perhaps the main thing to consider is whether the pen accepts universal refills made by other companies or if they only accept refills from the original manufacturer. If the refill must be specific to the manufacturer, then choose a manufacturer that is likely to be around with refills that are widely available in the future when you need to buy them. How you store your fountain pen will largely come down to how much you use it. All in all, the best way is to store it laying flat. This allows the ink to stay wet in the nib without excess ink pooling in the cap. Learn More: How To Store a Fountain Pen Properly

Fountain pen ink bottles themselves also function as stylish collector’s items. Visconti has a patented bottle shape that is unique in design and practical, the shape ensuring every last drop of ink can be used.Unlike eco-friendly pens, most conventional options are not refillable and end up being thrown away after they have been used. With not all of them being recycled they end up in landfill, polluting the surrounding environment. Opting for a reusable, refillable, eco-friendly pen is a far more zero waste and environment friendly approach to using eco stationery! Eco-friendly pens and eco pencils are an essential when it comes to eco stationery! Let's be honest we use them all the time at home, work, at school or even when out and about. Most likely no. Modern fountain pens are normally ready-to-go once they've been loaded with ink. Can I take my fountain pen on an airplane? Twist the knob of your converter to send the piston all the way to the bottom of the converter. (You should see the piston descending to the bottom of the converter.)

The barrel of this pen is made from spongy cork bark that provides a no slip grip. Did you know that a cork tree is able to shed and regrow its bark causing no harm to the tree? It’s a great alternative to plastic. Cork is lightweight and feels comfortable in your hand. It’s also 100% compostable. More and more cities and states are passing legislation to ban plastic bags and straws, but rarely do we think about the impact of the ink pen. Most of us own too many of them, even if it feels like you can never find one when you need it. Almost none of those pens are recyclable because they’re made of a combination of different types of plastic, metal, and ink. A large portion of them will end up in the landfill…and in that weird place in your car that is just out of reach. The ones that don’t make it to the landfill will eventually become part of the microplastics problem, polluting our oceans and land.For pens that have not been used in a while and are particularly dried out, try dropping the feed and nib structure into a cup of water and letting it soak for an hour or so. Rinse and repeat till your water stays clear. Tip #6: Store your fountain pen properly. Fountain pens require an extra level of consideration to ordinary pens. Luxury fountain pens can last generations, so learning how to care for yours properly is paramount. With the exception of quill pens (which are not at all practical), there’s no such thing as completely zero waste pens. There are some eco-friendly pens, however, and as consumers become more aware of plastic waste, the market for plastic-free pens is expanding. Early inks used petroleum-based solvents as the carrier, making up about 70% of the ink by volume. These solvents are toxic to work with in manufacturing. More recently, the toxic solvents have been replaced by soy or other vegetable-based carriers or water. These newer carriers are much more sustainable and healthier for workers and our air quality. Seltzer is a women-led company based in Asheville, North Carolina, that also sells a variety of other products that are made in the United States by small businesses that also care about the environment.

It can be helpful to grab some higher quality paper especially for first time users. Printer or notebook paper can be thinner and harder to work with.The Seltzer Seven Year Pen is a great option. Seltzer used math to come up with the name of their pen. Each pen holds a large volume of ink that will last you an estimated seven years, assuming you use 1 to 2 meters of ink per day, times 365 days, times seven years. That naming was intentional to get us all to think about the sustainability of the things in our lives that we consider disposable. To accomplish this feat over the years, ink manufacturers have used a wide variety of chemicals. These chemicals could be pigments that make the lasting color, carriers that keep the pigment in a liquid flowing form, and additives that serve a function like prolonging shelf-life or preventing clumping.