If you’re considering moving toward an eco-friendly lifestyle, one of the most critical steps is reconsidering your plastic use. Plastics pose a massive threat to humans and animals across the planet. While some steps to decrease plastic use can be difficult, reducing plastic from pens is a simple first step.
The best sustainable writing material is wooden pencils, which contain no plastic and are largely compostable. However, if you prefer (or need to use) pens for work or school, plenty of eco-friendly pens can help you make the switch simple.
Here, we’ve looked at many eco-friendly alternatives to traditional pens and developed the 24 best options.
Best-Of by Category
| Category | Product |
|---|---|
| Best Eco-Friendly Glass Dip Pen | Molshine Handmade Glass Dip Pens |
| Best Sustainable Bamboo Pen | ZenZoi Bamboo Wood Fountain Pens |
| Best Biodegradable Pen | Earthly Good Biodegradable Corn Pen |
| Best Recycled Material Pen | Pilot’s B2P Line |
Methodology
In choosing the best eco-friendly pens, we considered two major factors: writing and sustainability. Though the quality of a pen’s writing is mainly personal preference, there are some objective measures to consider when looking at pens.
Namely, they shouldn’t skip when you’re writing, and they shouldn’t spill too much ink or bleed on your page. They should feel smooth to write with and have a solid, comfortable grip.
When considering a pen’s sustainability, we prioritized pens with refill options, whether an ink well or an insertable cartridge.
We also looked for pens that contain as much recycled material and recyclable components as possible, in addition to zero-waste pens.
Best Eco-Friendly Pens
1. Molshine Handmade Glass Dip Pens
The most eco-friendly pens available are dip or fountain pens. Because they don’t take cartridges like traditional pens, fountain pens have no components you need to dispose of, barring an ink bottle.
The pens can last as long as twenty years, making them a nearly zero-waste choice. Molshine’s Glass Dip Pens are made entirely of glass, so if it breaks or you want to dispose of it, you can always toss the whole thing in the recycle bin.
The Molshine Glass Dip Pen holds a ton of ink and glides smoothly across the page when you write. The only drawback to dip pens is that they’re less portable than other options and are challenging for quick notes.
2. Handmade Bamboo Dip Pens
The Bonniesbitsandthings Etsy Shop sells bamboo dip pens that are entirely compostable. Though they’re a bit crude compared to more modern fountain and dip pens, they’re about as sustainable as possible.
Each pen is handcrafted, and you can choose between small, medium, and broad nibs. Though they’re not perfect for school or travel, they’re great options for journaling at home or for anyone dipping into calligraphy.
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3. ZenZoi Bamboo Wood Fountain Pens
ZenZoi Bamboo Fountain Pens are a great choice if you’re looking for modern fountain pens. Although fountain pens aren’t great for the on-the-go, they are eco-friendly because they’re almost zero waste.
ZenZoi makes its pens from bamboo, a highly sustainable, fast-growing wood that needs little water. Not only is the pen, but the packaging is also an even better option for sustainability.
The nibs on the ZenZoi Bamboo Fountain Pens are high quality and well-balanced but (as with any fountain pen) will require some practice if you’re unfamiliar with using fountain pen tips. Nonetheless, the grip of these pens, combined with their well-crafted design, make them an excellent choice for first-time fountain pen users.
4. Caran D’ Ache Retro Ecridor Fountain Pen
If you’re an experienced fountain pen user and want to consider an eco-friendly pen that will likely last you the rest of your life, the Caran D’ Ache Retro Ecridor Fountain Pen is a fantastic choice.
This pen contains no plastic and is entirely made of metal. It has a clean, streamlined design and writes with some of the best quality in the fountain pens market. It’s well-balanced and just feels good to use.
Caran D’ Ache Retro Ecridor also offers a rollerball pen for those seeking a more traditional option. The rollerball pen’s ink cartridge is plastic-free and can be replaced, reducing the pen you must send to the landfill.
Though Caran D’ Ache Retro Ecridor’s pens aren’t as great as school supplies where they may get lost or stolen, they’re perfect for adults who want to move towards creating less waste with a perfect lifetime-use pen.
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5. Parker Jotter Ballpoint Pen
If you’re looking for a more user-friendly option but still want to minimize the amount of plastic in your pens, Stainless Steel Parker Pens (especially the Jotter Ballpoint Pens) is great. You can repurchase the interior cartridges, which helps reduce the amount of pen that goes into a landfill.
As an eco-friendly bonus, this pen’s interior and most of its body are made of metal. If you break it or need to replace it, you’re not contributing to the growing microplastic problem.
Parker pens also feel great to write with. They glide across the page and are popular for their slim, balanced feel.
6. Seven-Year Pens
The Seven-Year Pen from Seltzer is an excellent zero-waste option. Though they’re plastic pens, designers created them to last you for the rest of your life.
As the name implies, Seven Year Pens are packed with ink, so you won’t run out of ink for seven years. Even if you use everything in your pen up, they’re refillable, so you won’t have to throw away the exterior.
Seltzer furthers its sustainability by producing these pens in Switzerland, which means its factories comply with some of the world’s strictest environmental standards.
Seltzer offers many color options to suit every style. It’s known for smooth writing and top-quality ink. Seltzer also makes many other eco-friendly office supplies for those who like to match their stationery.
7. Agile Eco-Friendly Pens
Agile’s eco-friendly, plastic-free pens are closer to traditional pens than many other options. They’re completely plastic-free and only contain stainless steel, wood, and ink.
Unlike many other brands that use plastic caps, the pen caps are also wood-made. The exterior of Agile’s pens can be recycled or composted, including the lid.
Unfortunately, you will have to throw away the inside when you run out of ink- though you’re still better off throwing their stainless steel interior away than traditional plastic materials.
The Agile pens are a great choice for sustainable school supplies. Because they’re inexpensive and largely disposable, they’re perfect for kids who misplace school supplies.
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8. Simply Genius Eco-Friendly Pens
The Simply Genius Eco-Friendly Pens are perfect if you’re looking for a retractable pen that closely resembles the pens you’re used to. These pens aren’t completely zero-waste or plastic-free like some options, but they are a great first step toward eco-friendly alternatives for anyone on the fence about making the switch.
Simply Genius Eco-Friendly Pens use recycled cardboard, repossessed plastic, and wheat straw, which means they’re sustainably produced, even though they’re not plastic-free.
Wheat straw parts are a popular choice in sustainable products. It’s renewable, BPA-free, and a natural byproduct of wheat production. If not used in creating other products, wheat straw is typically burned or destroyed, so using it in pens is a great way to minimize greenhouse gas emissions.
Simply Genius Eco-Friendly Pens are a great choice for eco-friendly school supplies. They’re not as expensive as pens designed to last for life, so you won’t worry about sending them to school with children or bringing them somewhere you might lose them.
9. Bic Ecolutions Pens
Bic’s Ecolutions line is another great eco-friendly alternative to traditional pens. They’re almost entirely made from sustainably recycled plastic and are sold in a recyclable cardboard box.
Bic pens have an excellent, well-balanced grip and are known for their fast writing and high-quality ink, and the Ecolutions line is no exception.
If you’re a fan of Bic pens, these pens are a great way to keep using your favorite pens while moving toward a more sustainable option.
10. The Eco Pen Club
The Eco Pen Club sells a variety of eco-friendly and zero-waste office supplies.
The Clicker Pens from the Eco Pen Club are great ballpoint pens. They’re made from recycled cardboard and contain only non-toxic soy ink. If you want to keep using your pen after finishing the ink it comes with; you can also purchase eco-friendly refills from the Pen Club.
The Eco Pen Club also offers an Earth Pen from recycled kraft paper. The Earth Pen is compostable and recyclable, reducing its presence in landfills. It is also made in a Forest Stewardship Council-certified facility, ensuring the environmental impact of the pens is as minimal as possible.
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11. Pilot’s B2P Line
Pilot’s B2P (bottle-to-plastic) line is fantastic for those who want their eco-friendly pens to be as close as possible to traditional pens. The line utilizes the formula that has made Pilot a trusted brand for years but takes a more environmentally focused approach.
Pilot makes their B2P pens with 86% recycled plastic from recycled plastic bottles. They have a comfortable grip and glide across the page when you write.
One of the best features of Pilot’s B2P line is that they make a variety of colors. Most eco-friendly options come in black and blue only, but the B2P line includes every color of the rainbow,
12. AGood Company Natural Grass Pens
Earth Hero is a certified B corporation, a zero-waste, sustainable goods company. It sells tons of eco-friendly school supplies, including zero-waste pencils, sustainable pencil cases, eco-friendly backpacks, and much more. It also hosts various AGood Company products, including its Grass Pens.
AGood Company’s Natural Grass Pens are BPA-free and almost entirely made of grass. The parts of the pen that need to be made from plastic are exclusively recycled plastic to reduce their environmental impact.
The maker has committed to planting trees proportionate to its profits to mitigate environmental damage from shipping and producing the pens.
The ink used in AGood Company’s Grass pens is also non-toxic and made with low environmental impact in mind. Earth Hero sells pen refills in black and blue to further increase the lifespan of the pens.
13. Conscience Concepts Cork Ballpoint Pens
Cork is a highly sustainable, easy-to-grip, lightweight material, perfect for pens. The plastic parts of the pen are made from repurposed wheat straw, a fantastic sustainable alternative to conventional plastics.
Conscience Concepts Cork Pens are easy to use and popular for their excellent ink and pen tips. Their low price point and ink color options make them a great option for low-waste school supplies for children who tend to lose their pens and pencils.
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14. Stablio Greenpoint Felt-tip Pens
Stablio has long been popular for its high-quality, sleekly-designed writing supplies. Their line of Greenpoint pens meets the top-notch quality standards that Stablio is known for while still providing an eco-friendly alternative to conventional pen options.
Though Stablio hasn’t abandoned plastic packaging and casing for its products, these pens use 98% recycled plastic, which offsets significant damage.
One major factor that sets the Stablio Greenpoint Pens apart is their pledge to being carbon neutral. This means that Stablio promised to offset each pen’s carbon emissions by planting trees or using other carbon-capture technology.
15. Eco-Haus Bamboo Pens
Eco-Hause is a sustainability brand focused on making sustainable options more accessible to the average consumer. Their retractable bamboo metal pens are refillable.
The packaging for Eco-Haus pens is a plastic container tube, which is intended to be used as a pen cup holder, upcycling instead of recycling the necessary packaging.
If you prefer to dispose of your packaging, you can recycle it instead of tossing it in the bin because it’s made of recyclable plastic.
You can purchase Eco-Hause pens with a refill for each pen, doubling the lifetime of your pens.
16. The Creator Plantable Pens
The Creator Plantable Pens takes a unique approach to creating eco-friendly products. Instead of being compostable or recyclable, The Creator pens are plantable.
Each pen contains seeds randomly dispersed throughout the pen’s material. When you’ve used up all the ink in the pen, you can bury it in a pot with soil and water and wait for your “pen plant” to grow. Each pen contains seeds for fruit, vegetables, or herbs.
Though they don’t offer information on how much each pen is made from recycled materials, they claim you’re keeping 6 grams of plastic out of landfills for each Creator pen you buy.
Not only are the pens eco-friendly and entirely plantable, but they’re also great to write with. The ink is smooth, doesn’t clog or splatter, and the pen’s structure is balanced and nice to hold.
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17. Zebra Pens by Jimne-Clip
Zebra Pens are popular for their smooth writing style, balance, and grip. They’re solid pens with excellent clips that are difficult to break, so they should last you a long time. Though not compostable, they’re made of 75% post-consumer recycled materials.
Post-consumer recycled materials are widely considered to have a more significant environmental effect than other kinds of recycling. Pre-consumer plastics come from manufacturing sources and are usually byproducts of manufacturing. Companies have incentives to reduce and reuse these plastics anyway to reduce costs.
Post-consumer plastics typically end up in landfills. By committing to these plastics, Zebra Pens ensures that more plastic is redirected back into consumer products and away from the environment.
18. Enkel Eco-Pens
Enkel’s Eco-Pens are sleek-looking, capped pens perfect for any school or office. They are almost entirely made from recycled paper and wood.
Enkel is committed to reducing waste in landfills, and all its products are shipped in recyclable packaging. Additionally, emissions from shipping and creating pens are offset through Enkel’s Eco-payback program.
The Eco-payback program promises that Ekel will contribute to funds that offset and reduce emissions for every product purchased.
This isn’t just an ambiguous claim, either. Enkel openly states that for each pack of their Eco-Pens purchased, they will donate to capture 15.1 kilograms of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.
19. Pilot Precise Gel BeGreen Refillable Rolling Ball Pens
The Pilot Rolling Ball BeGreen pens are a great way to choose a sustainable option without compromising quality or convenience. They’re made of more than 83% recycled plastic and are refillable, which helps keep more plastic out of landfills.
These eco-friendly pens are also very high quality. Many people prefer rolling ball pens to other pen tips, such as ballpoint or fountain pens, because of how they release the ink. The BeGreen pens are available in black, blue, and red.
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20. Earthly Good Biodegradable Corn Pen
Corn plastic is a fantastic alternative to traditional plastics. It requires 65% less energy, releases fewer greenhouse gases, and is entirely biodegradable. Overall, if you want a traditional plastic alternative but need a pen that functions just like a conventional pen, corn plastic pens are a great option.
Earthly Goods sells their corn pens in bulk for companies that want to print their logos and information on sustainable products. You can bulk-order corn pens in classic green, yellow, or other fun colors.
21. Edding EcoLine Permanent Markers
Though they’re not technically pens, these nearly zero-waste markers are made of 90% recycled material- most of which is post-consumer plastics. Finding permanent markers that are sustainably crafted can be tricky, but Edding EcoLine markers fit the bill.
These markers come in four colors- red, black, blue, and green. Edding EcoLine uses ink made without toluene and xylene, two toxic materials you might see in permanent ink. If you’re looking for an eco-friendly Sharpie brand alternative, you can’t beat Edding’s EcoLine Markers.
22. Lamy Safari Rollerball Pens
Lamy is a high-quality, reputable pen company that makes fountain pens and roller pens. The Lamy Pen is a great option if you’re looking for a solid, refillable pen. They come in various colors, so there’s an option available for every preference.
The ink cartridge is replaceable when you run out of ink, which means you can keep the outer shell as long as it’s functional. While you can’t recycle the cartridge, it is made of metal, which helps keep some plastic out of landfills.
If you prefer a different nib and ink cartridge after you use it for a bit, you don’t have to get rid of the Lamy pen, either. Most standard ink cartridges fit into the pen, which means you don’t have to waste the entire pen, even if you don’t love the ink.
23. Chinco Everlasting Pen
While advertised as a pen, the Chinco pen is closer to a pencil. It uses metal to draw erasable lines on paper and never needs to be recycled or replaced. The Chino Everlasting Pen is one of the few writing utensils that are truly zero-waste because unless you break or lose it, you never need to replace it.
Most of this pen is made of aluminum, which makes it a sustainable and recyclable option if you ever want to get rid of it.
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24. Onyx and Green Bamboo Gel Pen
Onyx and Green is an eco-brand that makes tons of low- and zero-waste school supplies, from eco-friendly pencil cases and wooden pencils to zero-waste notebooks and backpacks. They even have sustainably made calculators and lunch boxes.
As the name implies, the Onyx and Green Bamboo pens are made (as the name suggests) of bamboo, a highly sustainable and green material. They contain soy ink as an alternative to petroleum ink, and the packaging primarily uses recycled materials.
The pens write well and have a thick, comfortable shaft for easy gripping. They are long-lasting and write smoothly.
Better yet, Onyx and Green offer customers the option to buy their Bamboo Gel Pen Combo, which comes with a refillable mechanical pencil to match. If you’re looking for eco-friendly pens, you can’t go wrong with anything from Onyx and Green.
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