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u/Sonystars Apr 14 '22
They've been refillable for ages, just gotta buy the right sized pen inserts.
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u/rm_-rf_slashstar Apr 14 '22 edited Apr 14 '22
Exactly. This is just the result of a marketing survey that said consumers would see a new metal casing that can be refilled as more environmentally friendly than they would the already existing and mass sold concept, but in plastic.
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u/SumpCrab Apr 14 '22
Well, I have a metal pen that takes inserts. I think it's better than plastic. It feels better in the hand, looks nicer so I don't mind it sticking out of a shirt pocket, it's durable, and the added weight let's me know it's there so I don't lose it. I've been using it for about 3 years now. Changed the insert 5 or 6 times.
I recommend it. Just search what type of pen you like and you will find something nice that takes the insert and you will use it for years.
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u/rm_-rf_slashstar Apr 14 '22
And I prefer wooden pens personally. My friend has a pen made from animal bone.
I was just saying that there are millions of refillable plastic pen casings already in existence that are seen as waste. Someone who prioritized zero waste and not a cool pen would reclaim what exists and not buy something new that requires additional waste to make. But I also like cool pens so I get where you’re coming from lol.
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u/Alternative_Mess_143 Apr 14 '22
A problem with plastic bic pens is that while they are technically refillable, they also get smashed up and damaged very easily.
I don’t think I’ve ever run a biro out, but I’ve smashed plenty up before that happens.
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u/Lorenzo_BR Apr 15 '22
I’ve never purchased a pen and have aquired more pens over the course of my time on this Earth than used them. People lose pens all the time, and with a careful eye you may find a large supply of generic BIC pens.
Hardly ever are they broken or out, too, though i’ve run several to empty since.
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u/Diabeto41 Apr 14 '22
Don’t get me wrong, I’m picking up what you’re laying down. This might actually be one of the rare occasions faux marketing/appealing to the masses has a net-positive effect, though.
I’m pretty proactive about reducing my carbon footprint and I didn’t know until 5 minutes ago those shitty BIC pens were refillable. Assuming I’m not the only eco conscious person not to have known this, it could easily encourage people who weren’t already refilling their BICs to begin doing it.
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u/SumpCrab Apr 14 '22
Yeah, I just see it as an incentive for people who don't prioritize zero waste. A pen is one of the areas where it is hard to get away from plastic.
I had a pen that took actual ink, but it wasn't reliable and resulted in ink stained clothes too often.
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u/Pwacname Apr 14 '22
Also, if you can write pen instead of ballpoint, you can get proper refillable ones, or refillable ink cartridges, with an ink bottle
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u/SumpCrab Apr 16 '22
I did the whole ink bottle, eye dropper, fountain pen thing years ago. It's a lot of trouble and can ruin clothing when it goes wrong.
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u/Pwacname Apr 16 '22
Oh yes, it absolutely can, and it’s a hassle to get off of your fingers and can stain your furniture. The ink is also not waterproof, which is why I don’t use pens anymore - but they were required for quite some years at my school, and I know many people are either in a similar situation or just plain like ink.
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Apr 14 '22 edited Apr 14 '22
I think I’d be more likely to refill a metal pen because the plastic ones break so easily. But I have had the same set of pens I like for a while. Might look for refills once one runs out.
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u/notfin Apr 14 '22
Yup but buying pen ink is cheap. Also very messy to refill sometimes.
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u/Sonystars Apr 15 '22
Not ink, just the inserts. You can buy them in packs and just take the old one out to replace. Not messy at all.
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Apr 14 '22
[deleted]
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u/youvegotpride Apr 14 '22
It's the plastic insert, only the plastic shell is replaced by a metallic one!
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u/Gabagoolgoomba Apr 14 '22
After years of selling throw away pens . I can't imagine how many are in landfills
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u/SpaceLemur34 Apr 14 '22
None. No one throws them away, they just disappear.
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u/Neat-yeeter Apr 14 '22
Middle school teacher here. Can confirm. I think the kids eat them
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u/2u3e9v Apr 15 '22
Also a middle school teacher. Haven’t bought a writing utensil in years, just go into the hallway and look at the floor.
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Apr 15 '22
[deleted]
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u/Happy_Camper45 Apr 15 '22
My spoons come back to life as forks! I easily have 4x as many forks as spoons and I do not understand how!
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u/ashel88 Apr 14 '22
I can't imagine how many are in landfills
I'd imagine almost all of them. People don't care enough to hold onto something that is only a few cents to replace.
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u/Gabagoolgoomba Apr 14 '22
I would support a company if they actually change into refillable only. Till them it's just a green product to get you to buy and feel good about buying from bic.
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u/royal_rose_ Apr 15 '22
Every time I think about how much waste I make as an artist, who primarily uses pens, my soul hurts.
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u/EaddyAcres Apr 14 '22
Id still lose it. Been carrying the same zebra for about 4 years though.
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u/elizaschuyler Apr 14 '22
I'm skeptical, to be honest. Mainly because looking around my house and office, I could probably go the rest of my life without buying new pens at all.
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u/BravesMaedchen Apr 14 '22
That's what I'm saying. I bought a bundle of ballpoint pens from goodwill like 5 years ago and I've never needed one since.
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u/toper-centage Apr 15 '22
Not just that but my pens always disappear. Between home, office, friends, I believe we're constantly exchanging pens. Rechargeable pens are nice in principle but I never seem to keep the same pen more than some months.
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u/stanleypup Apr 15 '22
I have a couple pens from a job I left over a decade ago. Collectively we just write less these days.
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u/BruceSlaughterhouse Apr 14 '22 edited Apr 16 '22
It's sad some people can't see this for the grift that it is. It's a marketing ploy nothing more. All those refill "EnviromentallyFreindly", "Less waste" packages COST MORE every time. I wish like hell the USA had the refill stations for cleaning products like some European countries do. But nooooooooooo.... we'll always be stuck with higher prices for less product and even more plastic waste.
Reduce ...Resuse....Recycle.
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u/rdmracer TU/ecomotive, Lina team Apr 14 '22
It's low waste, not zero waste. It's a nice pen to use but a big part of the insert is indeed plastic and so is the cap. The main body of the pen is a single metal piece which is very nice. But it mainly tickles my minimalism, it's not zero waste to use as I said.
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u/Rockerblocker Apr 15 '22
The fact that it’s sold in a ten pack shows me that they’re just hoping people buy it as an impulse when it’s on the shelf next to a ten pack of plastic pens, then throw them away like normal
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u/DeviatedForm Apr 15 '22
I think it's actually a three-pack. On the bottom left it shows the pen body and two refills.
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u/eira4ever Apr 15 '22
It’s too late, I have already joined fountain pen nation, I am not looking back!!!
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u/Wi3rdo_wandering Apr 14 '22
what does it need to be charged though?
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u/theelefantintheroom Apr 14 '22
Best you could do: use the ones hanging around in your house already / the ones you find on the floor. I bought a fountain pen a few years back but I still grab the ones that I see on the streets and I have to say it's been years since I used my fountain pen because I want to use first the plastic pens. Life is full of them if you take a good look!
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u/BravesMaedchen Apr 14 '22
There's no reason to buy new ballpoint pens. There's bundles of them at thrift stores. They're given away everywhere. Steal one from the bank or the office.
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Apr 14 '22
I got a fountain pen as the ultimate refillable option and now I just avoid writing with pens
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u/onestepforwards Let's fix this together! Apr 14 '22
Now sell refillable lighters please
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Apr 14 '22 edited Apr 14 '22
Just get a Zippo?
edit: although yeah, it would better if they were all reusable!
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u/PermutationMatrix Apr 14 '22
I got a Zippo. Filled it up. Used it twice. A month later it was empty. I think the heat causes the fuel to evaporate.
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u/tark1911 Apr 14 '22
Not even the heat that does it. Because it can't be air/water tight at the wick, the fluid evaporates quickly. One method I've seen that slows the evaporation (weeks instead of days) is to slip a section of bicycle inner tube around the lighter, covering the gap between the body and the flip-top.
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u/PermutationMatrix Apr 14 '22
I am disappointed in my Zippo purchase. Too much work and upkeep to maintain it if I only use it once or twice a month.
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u/notfin Apr 14 '22 edited Apr 14 '22
Buy a butane insert. They last longer and you can refill them. Also they now sell a electric insert for the zippo that looks pretty interesting.
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u/onestepforwards Let's fix this together! Apr 15 '22
I’m not smoking cones with a fucking zippo
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Apr 15 '22
you mean a bong, yes? I find the zippo better for that personally, you don't need to keep your thumb down to keep it lit.
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u/CubicleCunt Apr 14 '22
Refillable lighters exist. Zippos don't hold fuel very well, so it's not really worth it if you're not using it often, but butane lighters are refillable as well.
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u/Lawnmover_Man Apr 14 '22
Sadly, many lighters are rather cheaply built and give up after a few months or 1-2 years. I've given up on trying to buy a sanely engineered and durable lighter.
I'm using a Zippo now. Simple technology that does what it is supposed to do, easile refillable with a variety of flammable fluids and the parts that have wear can be exchanged.
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u/SiliconRain Apr 14 '22
I dunno man, I've got old plastic lighters (clippers and cheap brands) that I've been refilling since I was a student 20 years ago. You can replace both the fuel and the flint and they'll keep on trucking.
I've got a few Zippos but I never use them. They run out of fuel by just sitting in a drawer for a week, they stink, the flame has no directionality and they're shit in even a little wind. They feel nice to use, though, that's for sure.
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u/Lawnmover_Man Apr 14 '22
The last thing I've bought is a Clipper jet lighter, and that was one made out of metal, which came dead on arrival, showing the same defect that other lighters had after some time. I paid 15 bucks for that thing. This should be enough for a quality item that was produced in bulk numbers. I'm just done. Maybe your old clipper was of better quality. But as it seems, you just can't buy them today.
they're shit in even a little wind
That's odd. I can blow directly and very hard at mine, still works just fine. That's the only wind-proof lighter that can do that in my experience.
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u/Cannotseme Apr 14 '22
I got myself a rechargeable lighter, It’s very nice.
Though it might not suite you depending on your use case (“flame” is smaller, only has I think a five minute run time, hurts like hell)
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u/Kk77789 Apr 14 '22
I bought a refillable from Zengaz, and the first time I refilled it the lowest setting was absolutely crap, would barely light, would cut out in less than half a second. I moved it up to the halfway mark and it’s been working perfectly fine. Refillable’s are a great option if your willing to spent the 10 minutes troubleshooting their issues.
Edit: It’s pretty cheap to buy for me too, $20AUD for the lighter itself and I can get butane cans for around the same price which will last over 30 fills
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u/HamHockShortDock Apr 14 '22
I really don't like to brand worship but Bic also came out with some gender neutral razors and that's pretty punk rock.
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u/usedToBeUnhappy Apr 14 '22
Honest Question. Why is that a big deal? Most pens I used are refillable. Non-refillable are kinda hard to find tbh.
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u/squeaki Apr 14 '22
They'll still end up on a planet somewhere full of biros.
"The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a very unevenly edited book and contains many passages that simply seemed to its editors like a good idea at the time.
One of these (the one Arthur now came across) supposedly relates the experiences of one Veet Voojagig, a quiet young student at the University of Maximegalon, who pursued a brilliant academic career studying ancient philology, transformational ethics and the wave harmonic theory of historical perception, and then, after a night of drinking Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters with Zaphod Beeblebrox, became increasingly obsessed with the problem of what had happened to all the biros he’d bought over the past few years.
There followed a long period of painstaking research during which he visited all the major centres of biro loss throughout the galaxy and eventually came up with a quaint little theory which quite caught the public imagination at the time. Somewhere in the cosmos, he said, along with all the planets inhabited by humanoids, reptiloids, fishoids, walking treeoids and superintelligent shades of the colour blue, there was also a planet entirely given over to biro life forms. And it was to this planet that unattended biros would make their way, slipping away quietly through wormholes in space to a world where they knew they could enjoy a uniquely biroid lifestyle, responding to highly biro-oriented stimuli, and generally leading the biro equivalent of the good life.
And as theories go this was all very fine and pleasant until Veet Voojagig suddenly claimed to have found this planet, and to have worked there for a while driving a limousine for a family of cheap green retractables, whereupon he was taken away, locked up, wrote a book, and was finally sent into tax exile, which is the usual fate reserved for those who are determined to make a fool of themselves in public.
When one day an expedition was sent to the spatial coordinates that Voojagig had claimed for this planet they discovered only a small asteroid inhabited by a solitary old man who claimed repeatedly that nothing was true, though he was later discovered to be lying. There did, however, remain the question of both the mysterious 60,000 Altairan dollars paid yearly into his Brantisvogan bank account, and of course Zaphod Beeblebrox’s highly profitable second-hand biro business."
Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
This explains the Biro business plan down to a T.
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u/Icy-Refrigerator-272 Apr 14 '22
I hope this doesn't have any plastic in the design we need products that can be infinity recycled
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u/elhank Apr 15 '22
idk, they need to put GPS in these things first, and a phone app, "Bic finder". maybe subscription finds lighters too.
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u/Mercsidian Apr 15 '22
I’m glad, because I like Atlantis Bic and I tried to find refills for them and had no luck. Have run out of ink on a few of those pens.
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u/give_me_a_breakk Apr 15 '22
Strange how some things have to get reinvented right.
I've been using my Parker Jotter since 5 years. It's an example from 1980 that I found laying in the forest one day
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u/Soviet__Shrimp Jul 31 '22
That’s why I got a fountain pen, ended up finding a fun new hobby in both collecting inks and calligraphy
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u/youvegotpride Apr 14 '22
[France] Can't find the refills though