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As the headline reads: Plastic is everywhere. Like, everywhere. Statista surmises that plastic “is found in virtually all products, from packaging and vehicles to medical equipment and electronics. This growth has seen plastic become one of the biggest environmental issues worldwide, with plastic waste polluting land, oceans, air, and even food and human blood.” It reports that the US alone generated an approximated 73 million metric tons of plastic waste in 2019, and that’s projected to reach almost 90 million metric tons by 2030.
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| Statista’s projection of the United States’ generated plastics |
A Different Subject for Office Sustainability
In the print industry, discussions of how to reduce carbon footprints and the impact on the environment are always circulating, especially since consumers now take sustainability quite seriously. But those conversations tend to have a gravitational pull toward making better, more environmentally proactive steps with ink cartridges and paper obviously, since both are pretty necessary for the print industry to exist.
But what about more granular office necessities that are found across all industries—pens, pencils, and office chairs? Eventually, all these things need to be replaced, but their non-recyclable parts end up where the rest of the plastics go to die (slowly, I might add, over the course of up to 500 years): landfills.
Stock the Office with Eco-Friendliness!
In my deep-dive into the rabbit-hole of plastic horrors, I came across an article from ArchDaily that focused on a chair designed with circularity in mind. The Sia Task Chair from Boss Design is designed with “slimmer, elegant, and organic lines; uses few[er] components; and is assembled without adhesives to extend its life cycle, making its disassembly easier (by unscrewing and unclipping parts) for reusing or recycling components. When its working life ends, 98.4% of its materials can be recycled.” It is also designed for comfort and support, since roughly 75% of the general office worker’s day entails sitting down.
Now, what about pens and pencils? Easy! There are plenty of options for pens—from refillable roller pens that extend their lifespan to ones that are partially degradable to others made of bamboo (which is known to be a sustainable material). And pencils? The coolest option I found by far is from a company called Sprout—a company with a goal of becoming carbon negative by 2024. Its tagline reads “a used up pencil can still write the future”, which beautifully encapsulates the fact that once the company’s pencils run their course as a writing utensil, you can plant them to grow herbs, vegetables, and flowers.
Keypoint Intelligence Opinion
Even the most miniscule changes can eventually have a ripple effect toward a better future for those we leave the earth to—and if enough of us make ripples, maybe we’ll even get to see it in our lifetimes. While everyone has their own thoughts on the best practices for sustainability, the amount of plastic on this planet (and its impact on our physical health) is not debatable.
As I wrote last year in my Earth Day blog: “Plastic is not your fault, but it is a burden. So do what you can to lessen some of that weight—even if it’s just being mindful of what’s in your hands” or, in some cases, what’s under your butt!
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