BIC Cristal Original Ballpoint Pens, Every-Day Biro Pens with Medium Point (1.0mm), Blue Ink, Pack of 10

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The pen was the first to go on sale in the US, but it was by no means the first ballpoint pen – the head of the US company that made it had in fact discovered a version during a business trip in South America. Its evolution is, in many ways, an example of a game-changing design waiting until outside factors – in this case the rise of plastics and mass-production infrastructure, and a brilliant marketeer – allowed it to achieve its full potential. Gimbels was the first to sell a new kind of ink pen, the design of which had taken several decades to come to fruition. The pens, made by the Reynolds International Pen Company, promised an end to the messy mishaps users of fountain pens encountered – leaking ink, smudges and pooling ink blots. Those 100 billion ballpoint pens sold are probably all still in landfill,” says Curtin, noting that in most cases the pens’ bodies themselves are perfectly able to be reused again and again. “Just because the ink has run dry, we throw the whole thing out. That’s quite strange.” worth sold on the first day. However there were still problems with the design and demand slumped and so did the price, dropping to only 19 cents. It looked as though the ballpoint pen was doomed to failure.

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In 1935 Ladislas Biro and his brother Georg (who was a chemist) set about designing a new pen. The instigator was Ladislas, who was editor of a small newspaper at that time, and was fed up with The hexagonal body makes it easy to grip; the “transparent shaft that allows you to see the ink running out”, Hensher says. A tiny hole in the body equalises the air pressure both inside and outside the pen. Then there is the ink, drying in a couple of seconds instead of the 10s of seconds. “To be perfectly honest, the Bic pen is just such a miracle you don’t even think about it anymore. Most houses in the UK probably have a vast number of pens; some will be new, some will be old and dried up, some with just a tiny bit of ink left in them. Kids can safely use them at school, no ink splatters on school uniform, no blobs of ink on text books.Produced since 1950, the Cristal has sold in mind-boggling quantities: it notched up 100 billion sales by 2006. It is such an everyday object that its strengths are easy to overlook. why I believe it should become a style icon. Someone got there before me, the Bic Cristal pen forms part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. Context

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Marcel Bich, a French manufacturer of penholders and pen cases, appalled at the quality and high price of ballpoint pens, resolved to design a high-quality pen at an affordable price that would scoop the market. The ballpoint pen The Bic Biro is also an object of mystery. Yes it is true, this seemingly ordinary writing implement has strange powers! It can disappear. Author Philip Hensher, who also runs a creative writing course at Bath Spa University in the UK, wrote a 2012 book on handwriting called The Missing Ink in which he praised the ballpoint pen. He says Bic not only found the way to produce vast quantities cheaply, but crucially hit upon a winning design right from the start. “If you have a product that needs no improvement – only tiny changes have been made to the Bic pens since the 1960s – you probably don’t have a lot of overheads.”Public spaces that have good traffic flow and are easily accessible are excellent drop-off points. Stores, community centers, places of worship, and libraries are great options in general.

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Fortunately your old plastic biros, fibre tips, gel pens and other writing instruments do not need to go to landfill. Recyclers Terracycle have partnered with pen manufacturer Bic to set up community pen recycling points across the UK at schools, shops and businesses. There are no direct costs to you for running a public drop-off point. Many collectors spend nothing other than their time. Once the pens have been received for recycling, they are cleaned and separated into different materials, then the plastic is melted down and used to make new products. Better still the Community Champion receives a donation for any collection over 15Kg.If you’re acting on behalf of a school or university and would like to take part in this programme, we encourage you to join the waitlist. service the upscale markets of fountain pens and expensive ballpoints and there many rivals at the cheaper end of the market, however, BIC Biro's cannot be rivalled for their price and functionality. They are consistently reliable and Ballpoint pen manufacturers are aware of this plastic pollution crisis. Bic themselves make a range of pens produced from 74% recycled plastic. More producers are promoting the idea of refills for plastic pens, and not just the metal ones that come with premium price tags. Other pen manufacturers have replaced the plastic body with tubes made of cardboard, or metal – the very material the first premium ballpoints were made of more than seven decades ago. The Bic Biro is a ballpoint pen approximately 145mm long and diameter of 9mm. The transparent barrel is hexagonal. It is made from polystyrene