Ballpoint pens
made from textile waste
Around 3,000 pens are purchased annually within the Schmersal Group as promotional “giveaways” and for use by the company’s own staff. In the future Schmersal will supply raw materials for these pens from Schmersal recycled workwear. The fibres of used ESD workwear are used to make the barrels of ballpoint pens. A replaceable refill creates the conditions for sustainable use of this “second life” writing tool. The idea was brought to the attention of the marketing department by an employee in Wuppertal. Carolin Mies, Strategic Organizational Development: “At the sustainability fair ‘Fair Friends’ I became aware of the company Manaomea, which makes pens and interior pieces from textile waste.
With Schmersal’s annual pen requirements and the waste of worn ESD clothing, this sounded like a very good solution in line with our corporate value "To take care of our planet".”
The barrels are made from a strip of our shirts combined with yarn scraps from textile factories in Schmersal blue. As we are recycling grey and black shirts, the pens are also produced in both colours.
Manaomea takes back the barrels that are no longer wanted to make interior pieces out of them. If you have a barrel that you’d like to send back, please contact
hello@manaomea.com.
