Did you know that 15-20 billion pencils are manufactured around the world each year? About 3.6 billion of those pencils are used in the US. That’s a lot of pencils.
So what happens to those pencils when they become a little nub too small to write with? Most of them end up in the landfills, which isn’t so bad since the wood portion will eventually decompose. The lead – that’s another story. What if there were a better way to reuse old pencils?
If a concept pencil printer designed by Hoyoung Lee comes to fruition, not only can we stop throwing away used pencils, but we can skip toner cartridges as well. Since more than 350 million toner cartridges end up in landfills each year, this pencil printer could make a positive impact on our environment.
This inventive printer uses the lead from the pencils to print text on the paper while also allowing you to use the eraser portion to erase mistakes! No more wasting paper when you notice a typo after you print your paper.
To use the pencil printer, you’ll need to insert your pencil stub into the port. It will first grind the pencil stub. Then it will heat the grindings to separate the wood from the lead. When you insert your paper for printing, the separated lead will be used to for printing instead of standard printer ink.
The erasers are placed into the eraser cartridge, allowing you to correct mistakes without wasting paper. Since the pencil printer has a curved design, the eraser dust will drop down the side of the paper so it doesn’t get in the way of anything that needs to be printed.
This inventive new pencil printer could change the way we look at home office printers and put our kids’ old stubby pencils to good use.
Would you use a pencil printer in your home?
Feature image courtesy of John Keogh