Refillable Pens

Shrimply

Hi guys

I'm currently staring around my desk which is pretty much a pen graveyard. And I'm a bit fed up

It seems incredibly wasteful, I'm a student and studying for exams at the minute so making a lot of notes, currently using BIC Round stic's which are awful pens anyway, but you can see the ink level and I literally emptied a brand new one yesterday.

So between hating myself for throwing empty pens away and struggling to find a pen I actually enjoy writing with I thought maybe refillables might be the best option.

But some searching and it seems they really aren't that common and refills are really expensive and while I'm all for greener solutions, when the cost of a couple of pen refills could buy 20 or so disposables it just doesn't seems at all economical - so yes I'm still depressed :P

Anyone got any suggestions, advice or alternatives?
Thanks

little_busy_bee

hi,

i would suggest a lamy pen as they are really comfortable and good to write with. I really enjoy using.

I got a few of these several years ago - a pencil, fountain pen and rollerball, with a set of refills for each and they have lasted really well.

The refills last far longer than you think, and I do not have the same issue with the number of biro that I used to loose or 'lend'.

Maybe put on the present list for Christmas.....

zeupater

Hi

A couple of ideas ...

Clay tablet ...... probably as 'green' as it gets


... Quill & ink ..... the ink still needs refilling


.... Fountain pen & ink .... no need to dip in ink, so much more productive ...


.... A pencil .... Quite Green ..... not permanent though


.... the neat way of doing it .....


..... or the accepted modern alternative, not very cheap though .... :eek:


But still probably the top of the tree overall would be what you're using .... the cheap & trusty disposable ballpoint pen (/biro) ....

.... The first three are particularly messy, the next isn't permanent, the following two aren't really readily portable or cheap ...... the last, well it's portable, permanent & cheap and (usually) not messy .... I'd stick with that .... :cool::D

Z:)

Shrimply

Thanks people, I'll certainly look into Lamys, that is one of my concerns though all the sources I read justify the high prices of refills by saying they last much longer, but I don't really get that. I mean fair enough the might last a bit longer but you can only fit so much ink in a pen.

As for the other suggestions

Clay Tablet - I think the costs are kinda against me on this one, I'd need a tablet room to store all my notes and I hate to think how difficult it would be and how much effort would be involved in studying from them. All in all not a very space efficient option I don't think

Quill & ink - I think I'm far too clumsy for that, I spill enough cups and tea and coffee on my desk- Ink :eek:

Fountain Pen - Probably actually a viableish option but I think writing with them is probably not a skill I desire

A pencil - The sound of writing will drive me mad, am I the only one who wants to turn round and strangle the person behind you in an exam whose decided its a good idea to use a pencil.

A typewriter - Typing without a screen, the horror.

A laptop/ computer - Well I have one ovbiously but I'm, (a) not a fast typer and (b) believe that writing actually helps you remember stuff better than typeing and furthermore reading nots in your own writing helps as well

So finally the supposed only option, I don't have a problem with disposables as such, but it just seems a huge waste of plastic none of which as far as I can tell is recyclable. I was hoping to find a greener solution which doesn't cost a fortune I'm guessing there isn't one

Ben84

Disposable is usually poor value looking like more than it is. I seriously doubt that buying massive numbers of disposable items ever works out better value per item than buying one good item that lasts. Disposable biros tend to be short lived and usually fail to work long before empty anyway. Those big bumper packs probably look far better value than they really are based on their size.

I write pretty much everything with parker rollerball pens. Refills last a long time (I use 1-2 a month and I do write a lot). The difference is that biro ink is pretty thick stuff and runs down fast as you deposit far more on the paper when writing. The parker refills are sold pretty much everywhere, but probably cheapest to buy on ebay. The pens vary in cost, but the cheaper vector ones are still proper pens which are nice to write with, but no great worry if you ever do lose it as they can be bought for about £3.

Is it more sustainable? I actually don't know, I just prefer to have a good pen and to avoid clutter.

zeupater

Shrimply wrote: »

Thanks people, I'll certainly look into Lamys, that is one of my concerns though all the sources I read justify the high prices of refills by saying they last much longer, but I don't really get that. I mean fair enough the might last a bit longer but you can only fit so much ink in a pen.

As for the other suggestions

Clay Tablet - I think the costs are kinda against me on this one, I'd need a tablet room to store all my notes and I hate to think how difficult it would be and how much effort would be involved in studying from them. All in all not a very space efficient option I don't think

Quill & ink - I think I'm far too clumsy for that, I spill enough cups and tea and coffee on my desk- Ink :eek:

Fountain Pen - Probably actually a viableish option but I think writing with them is probably not a skill I desire

A pencil - The sound of writing will drive me mad, am I the only one who wants to turn round and strangle the person behind you in an exam whose decided its a good idea to use a pencil.

A typewriter - Typing without a screen, the horror.

A laptop/ computer - Well I have one ovbiously but I'm, (a) not a fast typer and (b) believe that writing actually helps you remember stuff better than typeing and furthermore reading nots in your own writing helps as well

So finally the supposed only option, I don't have a problem with disposables as such, but it just seems a huge waste of plastic none of which as far as I can tell is recyclable. I was hoping to find a greener solution which doesn't cost a fortune I'm guessing there isn't one

Hi

Your thread did make me think before the last post .... I guess that there's not much which could be classified as a 'greener solution' if pencils are discounted ....

Regarding ballpoint refills, you'll likely find that the embedded energy in producing an aluminium refill and packing a pair of them in a plastic blister pack and having replacements at somewhere near to the same frequency as disposables make them far more expensive and far less 'green' than simply buying a box of 50 disposables which would last most people almost a lifetime, having consumed as much petrochemical resource as a single 5 to 10 mile journey in a car or running an average central heating system for less than 1 hour ...

In summary ... buy 50 disposable ballpoints for £10, calculate that an expensive ballpoint and 48 refills would cost over £100, then take the savings and go out to buy a pile of loft insulation and make a real difference to the environment ....

HTH
Z

Ben84

zeupater wrote: »

Hi

Your thread did make me think before the last post .... I guess that there's not much which could be classified as a 'greener solution' if pencils are discounted ....

Regarding ballpoint refills, you'll likely find that the embedded energy in producing an aluminium refill and packing a pair of them in a plastic blister pack and having replacements at somewhere near to the same frequency as disposables make them far more expensive and far less 'green' than simply buying a box of 50 disposables which would last most people almost a lifetime, having consumed as much petrochemical resource as a single 5 to 10 mile journey in a car or running an average central heating system for less than 1 hour ...

In summary ... buy 50 disposable ballpoints for £10, calculate that an expensive ballpoint and 48 refills would cost over £100, then take the savings and go out to buy a pile of loft insulation and make a real difference to the environment ....

HTH
Z

It shouldn't be replaced at the same frequency because I've found the refills last a lot longer than the cheap disposable pens (plus they don't dry out and stop working while being stored, I've used some from the 1980s recently!). They must hold at least twice the ink those skinny plastic straws in bic pens do. I find them comparative to the more expensive disposable pens in how long they last, but generally cheaper. So, the value is genuinely pretty good. Buying large packets also costs less per item and they don't come in the individual packaging this way if you're concerned by that. If you did decide to buy 48 refills it really shouldn't cost over £100, Parker rollerball refills have never cost me over £2 each, more like 50-70p, so I might spend £1-2 a month on refills. 48 would cost about £28, but assuming they last longer than cheap disposable and there's none that dry out and can't be used, this isn't bad.

Major benefit though is they're much nicer to write with. It's surprising how few people have a good pen.