# Are Fountain Pens Good for the Environment?  ## About - Author: The Economist - Title: Are Fountain Pens Good for the Environment? - Tags: #articles - URL: https://peneconomics.com/blog/2016/09/16/are-fountain-pens-good-for-the-environment/ ## Highlights This is essentially the argument that gets made but it’s not one I find convincing. For starters, the focus is exclusively on the volume of waste and the question of materials (plastic ballpoint vs steel FP) is ignored. That’s important because some waste products have different environmental impact: some items can be recycled, some are stored in landfill, and some leech into the environment in undesirable ways. Only thinking about the volume of waste ignores that issue completely. But, more importantly, the focus is exclusively on waste and disposal: the environmental impact of raw materials, production, and transportation is ignored, each of which are important things to consider.  Interestingly, a decade ago our friends at Bic considered this very question. They had a look at **[the environmental impact of a Bic ballpoint](http://www.bicworld.com/files/pdfs/sustainable_development/Archive/us/2004_BIC_DD_GB.pdf)** to determine exactly how much each of these factors mattered over the product’s lifecycle (p.13). Raw materials turned out to be the biggest source of impact by far — slightly less than 90% of the total. Which isn’t all that surprising, when you consider that the product is derived from oil. Production and distribution each account for roughly 5% of their impact, and disposal a mere 0.2%. It could be a rounding error. ---