Paper Mate Biodegradable Pens and Mechanical Pencils

I just got back from a walk in the park. It was a beautiful day and the walk was lovely, but I was a bit dismayed to see litter on the ground - especially plastic litter. That's because plastic typically takes so long to decompose that the trash will be around for a long time, perhaps posing some danger to animals and certainly making the environment less attractive.

That's why I was happy to see these new biodegradable pens from Paper Mate. I'm not encouraging anyone to litter, but it's heartening to know that if someone does leave this pen in the great outdoors, at least the body of these pens is made from a corn-based material that can biodegrade in soil or compose within about one year (according to the manufacturer).

Even better, the pens come in recyclable paper packaging. And on the back of the package is a handy diagram showing how to disassemble the pen when it reaches the end of its useful life, which components should go in the trash and which can be composted.

It's not often that you buy a product that specifically asks you to 'dispose of these in yard soil or home compost', but that's the advice here from the manufacturer.

Plus it's nice to know that the pen's packaging is made from a renewable resource (corn) rather than from a petroleum base.

FYI, Paper Mate also makes a nifty biodegradable pencil.

In terms of quality, I have to say that I think these pens and pencils are very comfortable to hold and seem well built. They're also affordable and attractive. In my opinion, the writing quality is even better than a more expensive (non-biodegradable) Parker pen that I bought recently.

Bravo to Paper Mate. I'd say this is a Green home run.

Where to Buy:

Amazon.com sells 4-packs of the Paper Mate Biodegradable Pens for $6.99. You can also get a 2-pack for $3.59.

As for the mechanical pencils, you can find a 2-pack of those for $5.99 at Office Depot.

Disclaimer - Paper Mate gave me some biodegradable pens and pencils to review.

Compaq Presario CQ2009F Desktop PC

Compaq's energy-efficient CQ2009F desktop computer

There are lots of websites that will talk about the exciting scientific research moving forward on powering our homes with fuel made from algae or other exotic substances.

Hey, I like algae as much as the next guy, but in the meantime, we get most of our energy from 'dirty' sources like oil, coal and nuclear.

So...what really gets me in a tizzy is when manufacturers makes quantum leaps forward in terms of efficiency, materials and affordability.

My last desktop computer was a Compaq. I bought it around late 2001 or early 2002. I spent around $1000 on it. It weighed approximately 27 lbs and (as I found out when I reviwed the Kill-a-Watt last year) used between 70-109 watts of electricity.

That old Compaq performed admirably for a while, even if it did look clunky and take up a significant chunk of my workspace. But then it started suddenly turning itself on and off without warning. And this thing was loud. It's not fun to be wakened in the middle of the night by the giant 'whoosh/click/whirrr' of your computer coming to life.

I had two choices - hire a computer exorcist or buy a new machine.

After looking high and low, I surprised myself by settling on another Compaq.

Compaq doesn't get much respect these days. Businesses are focused on brands like Dell and Lenovo. The hipsters all love their Apples or maybe their Acer eee box.

But I think the Compaq CQ2009F surpasses them all. Here's what I like:

1. Energy efficiency. My old desktop needed 70-109 watts of electricity. As measured by the Kill-a-Watt, the CQ2009F so far seems to draw only 29-32 watts no matter what it's doing. That's an efficiency improvement of approximately 60-70 percent!

2. Size/materials. As mentioned, my old desktop weighed approximately 27 lbs and took up a massive amount of desk space. The CQ2009F is much smaller (4.41" x 10.71" x 9.69"). It weighs only 7 lbs and requires much less space on the desk. That's a 74 percent weight reduction! So this desktop obviously needs much less in the way of raw materials - and since those raw materials tend to be made of plastic (oil) or metal, less is certainly better from an environmental standpoint.

3. Noise pollution. The CQ2009F is much quieter and unobtrusive than my old machine. Less noise pollution is always a good thing.

4. Features. Energy efficient machines are always great, but they're especially impressive when their feature set matches what other machines can do. In this case, I really wanted the ability to read and burn DVDs. The Asus eee box and some of the other tiny desktops don't have any DVD/CD drive, but the CQ2009F has one built in. It also has a handy little card reader so I can take the SD card right from my digital camera and plug it into the desktop without worrying about finding a USB cable.

5. Design. Remember when PCs used to be boring beige or grey boxes? The CQ2009F is sleek and sexy, slightly curvaceous, but not outrageous.

6. Price. It's nice when someone builds a great eco-friendly product, but if that product is out of reach for all buy a few millionaires (i.e. the Tesla electric car), then the practical environmental benefit is minimal. What's so beautiful about the CQ2009F is that it costs less than $300 (not including monitor)! That's a very competitive price these days and far less than I paid for a much less efficient machine just 7-8 years ago.

Why would anyone in the market for a desktop PC buy any other machine? I can think of just a few reasons:

- You're a serious gamer or video producer and need more RAM/power for your PC. (The CQ2009F has plenty of juice for typical home word processing and Internet browsing, but probably not enough for heavy gaming or video editing.)

- You want the smaller size and more efficient energy use (20 watts, according to Asus) of the eee box and you don't care about having the DVD drive.

- You're a Mac user, in which the Mac mini is probably your best eco-friendly bet (as discussed on Metaefficient).

Incidentally, the Dell Studio Hybrid also looks like a good eco-friendly option for PC fans, but it is a bit more pricey than the Compaq CQ2009F and according to the same Metaefficient article, a bit more power-hungry (26-44 watts).

Where to buy:

You can purchase the Compaq CQ2009F through various only retailers including Compaq's own website ($279.99 with free shipping) and Amazon.com ($269.99 with free shipping).

Naked Binder

Sometimes the best green products are the ones that strip away all the frippery and bring out the essence of an object.

That's the approach that Naked Binder has taken with its 3-ring binder made from 100% recycled board, which itself contains 97% post-consumer content.

For just $8, you can own what Naked Binder calls perhaps "the greenest, most eco-friendly binder on the planet."

Naked Binder makes some bold claims on the durability of the binder's hinge, supposedly made to last for at least 50,000 flexes.

We can't verify that the product actually lasts through 50,000 flexes (because we have a life, one that does not involve sitting around for days opening and closing a binder), but we can say that the binder seems plenty durable -- certainly more durable than other less eco-friendly binders you might find in a typical office supply store or drugstore.

You can tell that Naked Binder really cares about the materials that go into its products. The company's website has a really nice informational section about the "Not So Raw" materials used in making its binders.

We actually didn't get a chance to sample the bare naked binder. Instead Naked Binder sent us two slightly clothed versions of its basic binder - the Project Binder ($10, naked binder with 100% cotton book-binding cloth covering the spine) and the Wrapped Binder ($10, naked binder covered in 30% post-consumer embossed grey paper and lined with white FSC-certified acid-free book end paper).

IOHO there's something slightly oxymoronic about selling a Wrapped Naked Binder. I mean isn't that like saying that we're all naked under our clothes?

The Naked Binder certainly seems like the eco-friendliest choice, but we recognize that not everyone can walk into an important business meeting carrying such a raw, utilitarian object. The fact is that appearances do matter and that both dressier binders - the Project and Wrapped Binders - offer an impressive blend of style, substance and eco-friendliness at a reasonable price.

We do wish that the Project Binder was wrapped with organic cotton. And we'd love to see the Wrapped Binder use paper on both the outside and inside with a higher percentage of post-consumer recycled content.

But a critic can always find fault. The bottom line is that all the Naked Binders are praiseworthy - even beautiful - products.

Where to buy:

At this time, Naked Binders are available exclusively online through the Naked Binder website.


Congratulations to 1GreenProduct.com Embrace Only Love Sweepstakes winner #1 - Joanna from Rochester, New York.

We're still waiting to hear back from the #2 winner of the Embrace Only Love Sweepstakes. Per the contest rules, he/she has another few weeks to respond before we hold another prize drawing to choose an alternate winner.

HP Deskjet D2545 Printer

Sure, you recycle paper.

Way to go! Good job! (Pat on the back.)

But do you use a recycled printer? Hm? Thought not.

Well, thanks to HP's new D2545 Deskjet model, you can change your ways for the greener.

More than 80% of the total plastic weight on the D2545 comes from recycled plastic, including 100% of the printer's outer casing and trays.

Even better, the ENERGY STAR®-qualified D2545 comes in 100%-recycled product packaging.

Weighing just 6.2 lbs., the compact D2545 still has impressive performance specs: up to 26 pages per minute (ppm) black printing capability, with as much as 20 ppm in color.

One more green benefit to buying an inkjet printer from HP -- the company supports recycling of inkjet cartridges in 42 countries and territories around the world through a free postage-paid return-and-recycling program.

Want more details on all the D2545 product benefits? Download a PDF here.

And remember, even if you do recycle, you're not participating fully in the recycling chain unless you also buy products (like the Deskjet D2545) made from recycled materials.

Where to buy:
Purchase directly through HP's Home & Home Office store or via Walmart.com.

The Green Writing on the Wall

Paper and pens are two of the most basic office tools, but while we've been recycling paper and using recycled paper for years, pens have mostly gotten left out of the recycling picture.

That's all changed with the release of Pilot Pen Corporation's new BeGreen line of earth-friendly writing instruments.

According to the nifty diagram on the BeGreen website, the pens are made from plastic scraps from other production processes. These scraps are collected, shredded, melted and made into the BeGreen pens. (Scraps from the BeGreen production line get thrown into the same pool of raw materials, closing the loop.)

All BeGreen pens contain at least 70% recycled plastic, but the green stars of the product line are clearly the BeGreen Precise V5 (89.2% recycled content), the VBall BeGreen (81.6% recycled content) and the G-Knock BeGreen (81.5% recycled content). Happily, most of the BeGreen pens can be refilled with black, blue or red ink when they run dry.

Personally, I like the precision of the V5. My handwriting is still pretty much illegible with the V5, but at least it's precisely illegible.

Naturally, BeGreen pens are sold in packaging made from recycled materials. You can find the BeGreen line at major office supply stores and national retailers including Office Depot, Office Max, Staples and Target.

With Pilot's BeGreen line, the pen is now greener than the sword. (Unless we're talking about recycled swords, which is a whole different story...)