A Landmark in the History of Waste- Mark it with your Bic
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 09. 9.05
Yesterday the Bic Company announced the sale of the 100 billionth -100,000,000,000- disposable Bic pen since it was invented just after WW2. Of course, every one of them was disposed of unless converted to nefarious purposes like cracking Kryptonite locks and others we won't go into here. We note that at 15cm, lined up end to end this would stretch 3,750 times around the globe, or 40 times to the moon and back. ::Reuters
The last I hear, BIC did animal testing as well, but that was awhile ago; I'm not sure if the facts have changed.
A cursory review of Bic's environmental statement, finds a fairly clever copout for not really changing their products: http://www.bicworld.com/inter_en/development/index.asp
They did research and found that with their disposable razors, the biggest waste was water, not the razor. This effectively places the blame on the consumer, rather than themselves.
Their research for the pens states selective facts clearly, but seems oblivious to the fact that their product consumes energy and matter, and that they do little to reclaim any of it. Their answer appears to be, "our products are small, so we don't have much impact".
Someone should give their spin guy a raise.
PSFK just picked this story up and did a "Flash Mob Alert" which I have copied below. Send an e-mail to all the contacts below to show them that we're concerned about their ecological behavior.:
Companies will always sell a product if people are willing to buy. Sounds silly, but just don't buy their pens.
I'm a rabid fountain pen user, at least partially because they are designed to be refilled by the user; re-use is inherent in their very design. And many of them are almost completely recyclable (if you're willing to separate out the component pieces). Fountain pens are also a pleasure to write with, mould themselves over time (due to the nib wear pattern) to the owner, and are something most owners take pride in. The rush to crummy cheap pens doesn't mean you have to take part.
Disposable-anything is junk, literally ;)
Matt
Bic pens have always been my favourite to write with. I find a simple biro preferable to other, more fancy, varieties. I'm going to write to Bic, and I'm going to find an eco-friendly alternative!