Melting and molding to an easy-to-hold shape is an easy way to recycle stubs of old crayons. Not for pencils. They usually go directly to the trash after you wear it down to a stub, right? Not anymore.
As reported in CNN, a spectacular idea developed by Denmark-based Sprout World that turns this waste into vegetables, herbs and flowering plants.
"There are 15 billion pencils made annually, and three million of those just in the United States. That's a lot of pencil stubs thrown away," said Michael Stausholm, CEO of Sprout World.
According to Stausholm, the pencils which are made from cedar in Pine City, Minnesota are the perfect sustainable product because one "dying product is literally giving life to a new product".
The eraser at the end of the wooded pencil is replaced with a seed capsule made from biodegradable material that contains a small mixture of seeds and peat. The capsule dissolves and the seeds grow into a plant.
Tomato, lavender, cilantro, marigold, thyme and green pepper are just some of the 14 varieties which cost $19.95 for a pack of eight.
The pencils were developed by three MIT students in 2012.
"At the time, I was living in Denmark and working a lot with sustainable companies," Stausholm said. "But sustainability is hard to illustrate to consumers. I was searching for a product that could easily do that."
A year later, discovered the Sprout Pencils when it was a Kickstarter campaign. Stausholm loved the idea and thought that it was the best way to present the idea to what sustainability is all about.
Stausholm team up with the students and persuaded them to let him introduce the pencil to the market of Denmark "We sold 70,000 pencils in the spring of 2013. We realized there was definitely demand for them," he said.
By 2014, the startup had sold a million pencils across Europe.
Soon, Stausholm procured the licenses and rights to the brand and got to be Sprout World's CEO. He said Sprout World now offers an average of 450,000 pencils a month and has logged more than $3 million in income. U.S. market is in next mind of the CEO.
In September, a small office with two employees opened in Boston for this project.
"America is a couple of years behind Europe in terms of embracing eco-friendliness," he said. But for him, U.S. is a perfect market since the creators and manufacturers of Sprout World is U.S. based.
The pencils are sold on Amazon (AMZN, Tech30) and in Whole Foods (WFM) stores in the U.S.
Stausholm is thinking about lowering down the price. Ultimately, he wants every student around the world to use Sprout World pencils.
Endorsement of the new products will in January that will introduce the plantable greeting cards and colored pencils.
"We know we can't save the planet just with our products," said Stausholm. "Our mission is to at least educate people on how to be more conscious in what they buy and look for products that are reusable."
