A familiar brand of recycled rollerballs got a little recognition last month when they were designated as the official pen of the international climate change conference in Copenhagen.
Although it wasn’t named on the COP15 website, this is how the rollberball pen was described:
The organizers recommend all delegates to use their own pens at COP15. Still, if you do not have a pen with you – you are welcome to use the official COP15 rollerball pens, produced from 89% recycled plastic from water bottles. Please re-use your rollerball pen as often as possible.
The only rollerball we know that sounds like that is the Pilot B2P, a gel ink retractable made of recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET), the plastic used to make those water bottles that overflow landfills everywhere. B2P, of course, stands for Bottle to Pen. The pens contain 89% recycled material, according to Pilot.
(The B2P won second place in a European contest to find the best recycled product of 2009.)
Update: A Pilot rep just confirmed that the company’s Denmark branch supplied the climate change conference with 40,700 B2P’s customized with the COP15 logo.
Eco-friendliness aside, the B2P is not a bad pen to keep handy.
The barrel is a translucent blue and indented like a water bottle, making it unique-looking and quite comfortable to hold and use, although it could do with a soft rubber grip for longer writing sessions. The pen’s plunger works with a firm, clean motion, much like the G2. The clip is serviceable, but nothing special.
The pen uses G2 gel refills in .05 and .07 mm, which means the writing experience is reliably smooth. The fine point seems slightly scratchy, as fine points often can, but the medium flows just fine. Refilling is a simple matter of unscrewing the pen’s tip. I was able to switch easily between the fine point that came with the pen and the medium point that was in my G2.
Obviously, it’s not an extraordinary pen, but given that it helps make use of some of the billions of water bottles produced every year, and at the same time is a solid, attractive writer, it definitely deserved whatever exposure it got in Copenhagen.
For other takes on the pen, check out the Future; Nostalgic review of the Pilot B2P and this review at Dooyoo.
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Always nice to see a product that cares for the environment without compromising on quality. Good stuff
Plus, it’s just a cool-looking pen. If I can get it to fit a 1.0 G2 refill, it could quickly become a favourite.
Unfortunately this pen isn’t yet available in the US. I’ve checked all over the place and the Pilot website for the US doesn’t even show it being created yet. Hopefully since all the reviews I’ve read have been really good it will soon make it’s way across the Atlantic!
Thanks for the information!!
Mary, the Tiger Pens store may carry this pen. Check it out. If not, I’m sure we can find a way to get one for you.
Update: Yep, the store has these pens in .05mm and .07mm. They’re £1.99 (about US$4) each. And I tell you what, if you’d like to order some, tell the guys at the store that TonyB will cover the shipping.
http://www.tigerpens.co.uk/acatalog/Pilot_Begreen_B2P_Gel_Ink_Pen_0.7mm_Tip.html
The folks at Tiger Pens are AWESOME!!!
The B2P pens I ordered arrived today and I absolutely love them. They have a more substantial feel to them than the regular Pilot G2 pens. I really like the shape and feel of the B2P pen. I’m amazed. I can’t wait to show them to all my pen and ecologically conscious friends!
Thanks so much to TonyB and the folks at Tiger Pens!
B2P pens are available in the US.
I just bought a fistful in our school’s campus bookstore.
(Central Carolina Technical College, Sumter, SC)
They were $1.89 each.