Reducing, Reusing, and Extending The Life Of Stationery Items

The Shiga Prefectural Office, a leading local government on the green purchasing front in Japan, has been promoting the reduction and to reusing of stationery items since 2000. Unused stationery items in the offices are collected and stored in a central cabinet and made available to anyone working in the office that needs them. Now a department can submit a purchase order for a single pencil, for instance, instead of only for a box of pencils as in the past. The aim is to put a stop to over-purchasing. "It is more important to reduce the amount of waste in the first place by buying fewer items and using them longer, rather than buying recycled stationery items", they say.

Manufacturers of writing instruments are going head-to-head to develop stationery items with longer durability, particularly after the Green Purchasing Law stipulated in its "being considerate" section that consumable parts must be replaceable or replenishable. Although there have been many ballpoint pens that could be reused when the ink cartridge is refilled, an increasing number of manufacturers are applying this idea to felt-tip and marker pens. Kanagawa Prefectural Office has already switched to a new model of highlighter pen that has a reloadable cartridge.



Posted: 2002/08/25 06:31:52 AM
Japanese version