Recycled Denim Pencils
by Justin Thomas, Virginia 
on 08.25.05
In our brave new world, sometimes pants becomes writing implements. These pencils don't consist of any wood. Instead they are made out of 20-33% recycled blue denin jeans that have been ground up. The rest is the recycled post-consumer paper. To complete the blue theme, they have a blue eraser and a pewter blue ferrule. For something...greener, you can also get pencils made out of "old money" or recycled U.S. dollar bills. A pack of 12 costs $6. :: Green Earth Supply
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These are really cool pencils. But at $6.00 a dozen, there's no way they can be a consistent product. I'm all about paying a little more for sustainability, but compared to $0.69 for a dozen regular pencils from Staples.com, that's an 870% cost bump! And they're also advertising for the online retail store!
Can't imagine they'll sell well until the price can come down to something comparable. Maybe if I was in the blue jeans business. :)
This is a pointless gimic. It is just a brief stop on the road to the landfill for this material. Undoubtedly the production of these pencils took a significant amount of power and water, and possibly had significant toxic biproducts. It would have been better to let those jeans go to the landfill. This kind of thing is only green in as much as it puts money in someone's pocket, and has almost nothing to do with sustainability.
As with many green products, the price of these pencils is probably high to due to the relatively small market available for them.
More immediately cost effective are Earthwrite pencils which are $1.20 per 12:
http://shop.store.yahoo.com/greenearthofficesupply/ecpen.html
Wouldn't mechanical pencils be better for the environment? You only need to buy lead refills. There is no extra cost to the environment from continually needing to source materials to hold the lead.
Even better than the 'normal' plastic mechanical pens, is the Triggerwood made from sustained yield scrap wood and black oxide steel. You can purchase them in bulk from: http://shop.store.yahoo.com/greenearthofficesupply/trigmecpen.html
Yes, the initial cost is a little steep, but refills are .07/each (less if you buy in bulk).
Cool, fair-trade guilt-free pencils! ;-)
Chris
http://amateureconblog.blogspot.com/