Remarkable are the stationery company that make plastic cups into pencils. We think this is pretty amazing. After all, not every stationery company out there's so clever to design bright, quality and eco-friendly products. The man behind the idea to recycle car tyres into note pads is Edward Douglas Millerin and began, as most good ideas do, by experimenting with ways to turn everyday throw away materials into something useful. What resulted was a collection of fun and functional products that had a long second - reincarnated - life.

The brand's philosophy ‘is to create recycled items that are well-designed, great quality and a joy to own.' Remarkable have a strong green credentials. As part of their environmental policy they endeavour ‘to develop technology and provide products that will be sensitive to the earth's finite resources and environment through the use of recycled and sustainable materials.' This month we launch the new look Remarkable range. There are even a few new products to discover and play with!

Whilst investigating this truly remarkable brand we came across the secret recipe for creating recycled plastic cup pencil...

Ingredients:


  • Recycled plastic cups (1 per pencil)

  • Graphite (enough to fill the middle bit)

  • 1 x pencil-making machine

  • water-bath (cooling tank)

  • Tim (he makes them)

  • Secret ingredient (makes plastic behave like wood)

  • Sharpening machine


Collect as many plastic cups as possible and stop them from going to landfill.
Wash off all the tea and coffee off and shred them into tiny pieces.
Preheat pencil machine to 180oC (30 mins)
Mix some of the plastic cups into the graphite and pour into the pencil machine.
Take the rest of the plastic cup material and pour into the other side of the pencil machine. Watch closely while all the material is melted (technical term: extruded) and brought together to create one long pencil (this is another secret bit). Ensure there is always a continuous length of pencil leaving the machine.
Allow the pencil to cool and harden as it passes through the water-bath (cooling tank)
Cut long pencil into smaller standard pencil size lengths.
Sharpen and leave until ready for printing.
(Easy job Tim, the machine seems to do it all for you.)


Please note we are not entirely sure if this recipe was a distraction from the real secret processes and would not advise adults try this at home.

This month's free gift when you spend over £50 at So Organic is a Remarkable suprise. You may get a recycled ruler and pencil or a car tyre notebook. Very nice indeedy.