Amazon Basics Refillable Fountain Pen, Medium Point, Brass Barrel, Black Ink

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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. It’s challenging to choose a best overall pen because none on the market are flawless. Even those that use biodegradable materials aren’t 100% compostable. 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. 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. 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.

Some eco-friendly pens are still considered disposable. That’s because they’re made from sustainably produced, biodegradable, or post-consumer recycled materials. Pens made from fast-growing bamboo or agricultural waste corn or wheat are considered sustainable and biodegradable. You’ll also find pens on the market made from recycled plastic bottles and recycled cardboard. In a lot of ways... just like any other pen! Here are just a couple tips to make writing with fountain pens easier, but all in all once your pen has ink flowing you should be pretty good go. Tip #1: Place the pen at a 45 degree angle. Tip #2: Don't press too hard.

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! Sam Di Nardo is an author for Dayspring Pens, where she has honed her expertise in ballpoint, rollerball, gel and fountain pens since joining the team in 2018. Converters function like a piston, pushing or screwing into position. Following a few simple steps, they are incredibly easy to use: Remove the nib of the pen from the bottle, reassemble the barrel of the pen, and your pen is ready for use. 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.

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. Often thought of as archaic and difficult, fountain pens are actually quite easy to use and many people even find them much more enjoyable to write with. 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?

However, these create unnecessary waste and are often more expensive than bottled inks. You’ll also be limited to a smaller range of colours than bottled inks. Perfect for greetings cards or jazzing up notebooks, the Shimmertatic ink range from Diamine results from several years of research and development. Each ink contains gold or silver metallic particles to complement the ink colour, adding a satisfying shimmer to your handwriting. 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. A refillable pen might also seem like a great choice, but look out for what the disposable portion of the pen is made from. Try to choose refills made from non-plastic material, or if made from plastic, then a post-consumer recycled plastic would be greener.

You can find a variety of sizes for the point from extra fine to double broad. Each size serves its own purpose, but a fine or medium nib are great sized for beginners. Let’s look at some of the best options for zero waste pens. You can read more about why these pens have been chosen below. B2P stands for Bottle-2-Pen. They’re made in the United States from domestically sourced recycled plastic bottles. The Pilot B2P Refillable Retractable Gel Pen and B2P ballpoint pens are made from 89% and 83% recycled plastic bottles, respectively. They’re refillable so you can cut down on plastic waste that way too. If needed, you can always remove the barrel and twist the fully loaded converter to release just a drop or two of ink from the tip. Fair warning, if you twist too much, you will drip a lot of ink so be prepared with a paper towel or water. How to Use a Fountain Pen:The environmental impact doesn’t end there though. Consider the ink left in pens and how this contaminates soil and water. Add in the environmental cost of raw materials and production, and you’ll soon realise pens have a hefty environmental footprint. Can you recycle pens? 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. 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.

A graduate of Regent University with a degree in English Literature and a special interest in Old Norse literature, dive deeper into Sam's world and discover why she's your trusted guide in the realm of gift pens. The clip and tip of the pen are made from wheat straw, an agricultural byproduct, which also keeps the wheat straw from being incinerated and contributing to greenhouse gasses. It is difficult to determine what else is mixed with the wheat straw to hold it together. It is likely some type of plastic (see similar Simply Genius pens below for comparison). But the use of wheat straw byproduct is still better than all plastic materials. Fountain pen nibs need much less pressure to write than a ballpoint pen since they have liquid ink. Just moving the tip evenly across the paper should yield the best results.It is important to keep your pen cap on when you are not using it. Since the ink often has water in it, the ink in the nib can dry if left exposed to air and will not write when you go to use it next. 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.)