Green Dream

I went to the Mandarin Oriental hotel the other day for an event. It was quite interesting, especially hearing the 2nd Finance Minister insist that we are not having a political crisis and we will not have a recession. Head in the sand?

But I was most excited about a plain black pencil that I found in my folder. But what's so exciting about a plain old pencil? This!

I think it's fantastic that people are finding new, better, and more sustainable ways of creating everyday products. And then I read an article in The Star on Saturday about a local stationery company called O'Bon. Did you know an area of rainforest the size of 20 football fields is cut down every minute, partly to make wooden pencils? Ok, so I know there's a large glaring hole in that statement just waiting to be blown apart, i.e. the word "partly". Who knows, it could be something as insignificant as 0.0001% of those football fields, right? But still, wooden pencils are made out of some trees somewhere, whether it's sustainably harvested or not, so when I read about O'Bon and their pencils made out of recycled newsprint, I was really happy. And these pencils are supposedly better quality too. Director Aaliyah Ng says

When creating wooden pencils, sticks of graphite are inserted into the middle of two blocks of wood and sealed together. This process causes air bubbles to be trapped inside, making the pencil brittle. Our patented process of rolled newspapers creates a very compact environment around the graphite so the lead does not shatter easily.

And best of all, these pencils provide some funky entertainment when you sharpen them

So there you have it. Pencils made out of recycled paper are awesome in so many ways. And it's great to see big names like the Mandarin Oriental getting on the environmental bandwagon. Chapeau! Now where's my pencil sharpener?