The $60 pen
Posted
Friday, February 22, 2008 12:07 AM
I’ve always loved fountain pens. I love the way my writing looks, I love the way they work, and I love how vintage and nostalgic they are. Most of all I love the way someone looks at you when you whip out a fountain pen. It’s like, That’s right, I’m way to fabulous to write with a boring old ball pen or even a super-trendy gel pen. But I was even more excited when I found this article that talks about the negative affects of ballpoint pens on the environment. It points out at how much plastic we’re actually using every year (and not recycling, because they can’t be recycled) when using disposable pens. Then it praises my pen of choice; the fountain pen.
“A common fountain pen uses only ink and not refills hence its other name- ink pen. Which means no plastic refills. The ink used to fill the fountain pen comes in glass bottles. The glass bottle comes in cardboard packing that can be recycled. The glass bottle itself can be recycled…
So using a fountain pen to write means no plastic ballpoint pen bodies, no plastic refills and no plastic wrappers either. These advantages make the good old fountain pen the perfect eco-friendly writing instrument of choice. Another advantage is that not only writing with a fountain pen elegant, it is also cheap and convenient to use.”
While I don’t know that “cheap” is the best way to refer to a fountain pen (as a good one with ink will run you around $60), the rest is all true. Once you purchase the pen you only have to buy ink refills every so often (which are usually only a few bucks) and the pen lasts as long as you take care of it. Thankfully, it’s this notion of helping the environment that’s convinced my husband to let me purchase my next fountain pen. I had one when I was just staring college and I absolutely loved it. It was a disposable however (not good for the environment), so didn’t offer the chance to refill and keep it. This time, I plan on hanging on to my investment!