Meet the entrepreneur behind the pencils that grow into plants
Old wooden pencils can now turn back into plants! This isn’t magic-it’s reality brought to you by the startup Sprout World. Based outside Copenhagen, Denmark, the company makes writing implements and business cards that, when planted in soil, grow into herbs, vegetables or flowers, reports The Huffington Post.
The idea is to inspire people to think more about where products come from and what happens when they’re no longer useful. So far, people seem to be taking to Sprout’s sustainable pencils. The company, which launched in 2014, says that sales are increasing.
“We as individuals know we cannot save the planet, but we can do things little by little, we can take small steps in our everyday life,” Michael Stausholm, Sprout’s chief executive, told The Huffington Post.
“That’s what people have in mind when they buy a Sprout pencil — you can feel you can make a difference by buying something you don’t have to throw out afterward, but plant it instead to give it a new life,” added Michael.
It’s a simple concept. Instead of an eraser, each pencil has a seed capsule on one end. The capsule contains one of several varieties of plants — herbs like basil or rosemary, flowers like marigolds or roses, vegetables like green peppers, and so on.
Once the writing end of the pencil is all used up, you just stick the capsule end in some soil and water regularly. The seed should germinate within 1 to 3 weeks, the company said.
The concept of a plantable pencil was developed in 2012 by three students at the Massachusetts Institute for Technology. Sprout purchased the idea two years later.
The young company says its sales hit $2 million last year. It expects that figure to double by the end of this year. Disney, Ikea, Marriott and Bank of America are all clients, buying the pencils in bulk as a gift-bag novelty.
Individuals can also buy the pencils on Sprout’s site, in Whole Foods Supermarkets and on Amazon, where customers have given the pencils a near-perfect rating.
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