20^th Eco-gen Ambassador Program- 1^st Report May 2018

The topic last month was related to saving paper and saving trees. To continue on the same subject, I would like to share with the forum two companies that are involved in producing products with recycled paper and saving trees: Treewise Pencils in United Arab Emirates and Green-O-Tech India in India. 

Tunza Ecogen had also sent Eco pencils to me as the prize for one of the monthly events and that was when I was introduced to this innovative product. Happy to have received them again with the Ambassador pack recently. 

Treewise Pencils

The passion of Mr. Ghulamhussien Jhanjaria for environmental conservation lead to the development of Treewise Pencils TM, pencils made from recycled newspapers. The aim of Treewise Pencils is to incorporate the 3 R's: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle into their company's production.

The website of Treewise pencils explains that:

?       To make normal wooden pencils, forest area reaching up to the size of 90 tennis courts are cut down every minute.

?       Recycling 12.5 feet stack of newspapers to make these recycled pencils saves a 20 foot pine tree.

The Treewise pencils are Non-Toxic while having a promised effectiveness. Not only does this promote buying of this product but it also proves that you can fuse business and raising awareness about protection of environment together.

Treewise Pencils also have a School Engagement Program. According to the company, by forging Eco-friendly ideas into the mind of the youth, making positive decisions for the environment will become second nature for everyone. They are committed to supporting schools in the teaching of sustainable practices, by offering schools their product at preferentially low prices.

While I was a student in Delhi Private School, Sharjah. Each of us at the school had received a set of pencils. Having received them from Tunza Ecogen earlier, I was aware of the product and found the concept beihnd these Eco-friendly pencils extremely innovative. During a talk I gave about Tunza Eco-Generation in the India Club, I also distributed these pencils among other things as give-away gifts for the children who attended. And now with the Eco pencils received with my Ambassador Pack, I will promote this product in my school in Austria

A little bit more about Treewise pencils:

?       Made from 100% recycled newspapers.

?       No trees were harmed in the making of these pencils.

?       Made without using any toxic chemicals/polymers/plastics.

?       Each pencil is made from a different Newspaper.

Green-O-Tech India

The brainchild of Mr. Prashant Rana, 'Green-O-Tech India' is an upcoming environmental company, introduced in 2010 with the mission of 'One step towards Waste to Wealth' through Waste Recycling. The company provides unique service models for Recycling of waste paper, waste plastic, waste metals and waste wood. However, their focus area is Waste PAPER. They offer a very unique service model of 'Waste Paper Recycling' for the corporate sector.

Unique idea for corporate sector

As per their service model,  Green-O-Tech India collect waste paper from corporates and offices, and get it recycled into daily use stationery products like Files, Note Pads, Note Books, Dairies, Paper Pens, Paper Pencils etc. and they offer this stationery free of cost to their clients along with the promise that for the recycling of every 100 Kg of waste paper, they will plant a TREE for their clients free of cost for their Green Initiative.

The website of Green-O-Tech India explains:

Production of 1 ton of Virgin Paper requires 24 Trees.

Approximately 19075 gallons of water is required for production of 1 ton of Virgin Paper.

Production of 1 ton of Virgin Paper in the industry produces approximately 3.67 tones of CO2.

The Seed Pencil

A product that caught my eye that Green-O-Tech India produces was the 'Seed Pencil'. They have a large range of plant-able Seed Recycle Paper Pencils with unique concept of planting the pencil after using it, when it becomes to small to be usable. These Seed Pencils have one end covered with a capsule with hybrid seeds of different plants inside it. The product comes with various seed types, which provide people with the opportunity of growing their own garden with different kinds of flowers, herbs, vegetables and fruits all from the seeds in these pencils.

According to the company's management, by adopting Recycled Paper Pencils and Seed Recycle Paper Pencils every one can contribute for the environment. Manufacturing 15 billion wooden pencils a year is the felling of 60,000 trees. If this new type of pencils are adopted then it will decrease the rate of deforestation tenfold.

Making of Eco-Pencils

Green-O-Tech India also explains how they make these pencils. These Recycle Paper Pencils are 100% wood or polymer free and they use high quality waste paper. The waste paper used for manufacturing for these Recycle Paper Pencils is properly cleaned and made human friendly. After that it is organized and cut into the size required for making pencils. An eco friendly adhesive is added to make sure that it sticks tightly to the graphite. It is then wrapped around the graphite core to form pencils. These Recycle Paper Pencils are made from using paper like newsprint, printer paper, stationery paper etc.

Personal experience

I am happy to mention that for a marketing campaign at my father's office where they wanted to use pencils as giveaways, I suggested sourcing recycled paper pencils as I was aware of them through Tunza Ecogen and the School Engagement program of TreeWise. The marketing team at my father's office were impressed by the idea. After internet research and follow up, they narrowed down on Green-O-Tech India and purchased these pencils from them. I am glad to have contributed this way and promoted this innovative product.

In my opinion the work these companies are doing is amazing and sets an example for us all. I think that if everyone switches from wooden pencils to these pencils made from recycled paper the rate of deforestation will go down and it will positively impact the planet.

References and Sources

http://www.treewisepencils.com/

http://greenotechindia.com/

Eco Pencils used as marketing Give-aways by my father's office, procured from Green-O-Tech India.