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Becoming more environmentally-friendly

Deborah Mashiter • 24 February 2023

Becoming more environmentally-friendly

Changes are happening all around the stationery world to reduce the industry's negative impact on our environment. Some of these changes are clear to see - others are less obvious. 

Clear and transparent credentials

Companies like ‘eco-eco’ wear their eco credentials on their sleeve so to speak, with their ‘planet friendly’ and ‘price friendly’ stationery products. Their aim is to supply quality stationery products that have high ecological credentials at no additional cost, believing that customers shouldn’t have to pay a price premium or suffer inferior quality products to be ‘green’.  Our experience of ‘eco-eco’ is that they are indeed both ‘planet friendly’ and ‘price friendly’. An example of this is their A4 multi punched pockets.  Our wholesaler’s own brand has a minimum recycled content of 20% compared with eco-eco’s 100% recycled content, coupled with (in our opinion) a superior quality, and yet they are on our shelf at the same price.  

Moving from plastic product packaging to cardboard packaging

We have started to see a move from plastic product packaging to cardboard product packaging. Examples of this are Staedtler's felt tip pens and Pilot's packs of Frixion highlighters or Frixion pen refills.

What’s going on behind the scenes?

Meanwhile, a lot is going on behind the scenes.

Pilot Pen Company are a good example of a company who have been making great strides towards reducing their ecological impact for a number of years now and are committed to being a ‘climate neutral company’, continuously looking to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and offsetting unavoidable emissions through carbon offset projects.  Since 2006 they have increased the amount of recycled materials in their products by 50% and launched the world’s first range of pens made from a minimum 70% of recycled plastic. They are committed to using less plastic in their packaging and are going further by using recycled carton material in their packaging and FSC-certified cardboard.

Finally, over 60% of their products are refillable, and we, of course, keep stocks of most of those refills.

Closer to home

Here at Craven Stationery all our cardboard and paper waste is collected by the local council for recycling, along with an increasing range of plastics, so that our non-recyclable waste is now very minimal.

We endeavour to offer our customers more environmentally friendly products, choosing to stock an ever increasing range of products from eco eco and actively promoting them as a ‘better’ choice. We are also constantly increasing our range of pen refills and selecting products packed in cardboard packaging over plastic packaging where possible.

Helping our customers to recycle their waste

Finally, for many years now we have taken in customers’ used inkjet cartridges. These are now collected on behalf of Water Street Primary School’s PTA who turn them into cash for the school. (Unfortunately we can’t accept your used laserjet toner cartridges, although most of the toner cartridge brands have their own recycling schemes. For example, our own Brother toners are posted back to Brother using the prepaid slip enclosed with the replacement toner.)

Similarly, we accept used pens, mechanical pencils, highlighters, correction tapes and fluid bottles, and fountain pen ink cartridges. These are passed on to Greatwood Community Primary School for their recycling programme run in conjunction with BIC.

Together we can make changes to secure a better future for our planet.
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