To mark World Refill Day (16 June), Pilot Pen Australia has launched a campaign to encourage businesses to change the ‘habit of a lifetime’ by switching from binning to refilling their pens.

 

“We are inviting Australian businesses to join us in a national ‘Don’t bin it, refill it’ trial so we can all work together to reduce the estimated 2.6 million tonnes of plastic waste that gets thrown into landfill each year,” Jarrad Murray, head of marketing at Pilot Pen Australia (pictured), said.

 

“If we can refill water and coffee cups, then why not pens?” he said. 

 

Free trial and free pens

 

All businesses across Australia are invited to take part in the free trial by visiting pilotpen.com.au/ecopack or emailing: [email protected].  Everyone who registers will receive a free ‘Eco Pack’ of pens and refills.  

 

“The trial will help us understand what office workers are doing with their plastic pens on a day-to-day basis and will help us work towards developing solutions down the track,” Murray added.

 

The Eco Pack contains twelve refillable pens made from recycled materials, each in a paper pouch with three refills that can be placed on a desk or workstation so workers can grab a refill, rather than automatically throw their used pen in the bin.  

 

“We are hoping by placing it in a visible, accessible spot, it will help prompt employees to think before they throw,” Murray said.

 

According to the federal government’s National Waste Report 2022, business and commercial waste contributed to around half of all plastic waste in Australia last year and just 13 per cent of this was  reused, recycled, or used for energy recovery – the lowest recovery rate of all types of waste.

 

Made from FSG certified recycled packaging and printed with vegetable-based biodegradable ink, each Pilot Pen Eco Pack is equivalent to 48 pens which represent a cost saving of 52 per cent and a 67 per cent reduction in plastic waste (compared with 48 individual equivalent pens). 

 

World Refill Day

 

World Refill Day is a global public awareness campaign on 16 June designed to accelerate the transition away from single-use plastic and towards reuse systems. Pilot Pen is the largest pen manufacturer in Japan and has subsidiaries throughout the world, including Australia.