Free Pen Recycling & Collection

We all know how important it is to move towards a more sustainable future and to waste as little as possible. To help, Boxx-Direct have partnered with TerraCycle to offer free pen recycling services. Old pens are collected from your premises and dropped off to TerraCycle to be recycled. All for free!

All you have to do is box up your old pens, preferably with a used cardboard box, and wait until you have a good number of them for collection.

The Writing Instruments Recycling Programme accepts any writing instrument with the exception of wooden pencils, glue sticks, erasers, rulers and chalk. Recyclable products include biros, ink pens, felt tips, highlighters, markers, correction fluid pots, correction tape, mechanical pencils and eraser pens among others.

The Importance of Pen Recycling

Businesses buy billions of pens every year. BIC alone sells over 8.76 billion items each year. Multiply that by the number of other manufacturers and you have a staggering amount of plastic being wasted once used.

If you don’t recycle pens they end up in landfill. It can take up to 10,000 years for plastic items to fully decompose depending on the type of plastic used. That’s a long time to wait for the earth to clean up after us!

That is one reason why recycling is so important. To reduce waste, reduce the amount of plastic polluting our planet and for maximising the use we get out of the materials we already have. Who wouldn’t want to play a part in that?

We have all seen the news reports of plastics littering our beaches, choking wildlife and floating around in huge eyesores across our oceans. Pen recycling is our way to reduce that impact and to do our bit for the planet. It’s free, easy to do and you can book a collection in minutes!

Pen Recycling with TerraCycle

The TerraCycle program is an innovative program that offers rewards for recycling markers and pens. The organisation has combined forces with BIC ® Community Champions to provide pen recycling across the UK.

In return for 15kg of items fit for recycling, TerraCycle offers 1 TerraCycle point which you can donate to your local school or charity. The more you recycle, the more points you get, the more your school or charity benefits. Points can be redeemed as cash donations or as charitable gifts.

The TerraCycle program is so popular that signups have been suspended. The only way you can recycle your old pens is to find another program or drop them off at a designated drop-off point. These are usually participating schools. You use this map to find your nearest participating location for drop off.

If you don’t have the time or are not close to a participating school, Boxx-Direct can arrange collection for you and deposit them with TerraCycle on your behalf.

What Happens to Your Old Pens

Pen recycling works like many other recycling schemes. Once the pens are collected, TerraCycle will clean everything, separate the materials and melt them down into plastic once more. Those plastics will re-enter the supply chain to be made into other products, preventing millions of tons of waste from entering landfills.

It may seem like a small thing, but recycling pens can have a significant impact. The TerraCycle program is an innovative program that can help us make big changes from a little effort. If we all combine forces, these little changes can make a huge impact!

Rather than throwing out your old pens, keep them, box them and book a collection slot. It couldn’t be easier!