Which kind of pencils are more eco-friendly, wooden or mechanical?

Question

Since wooden pencils are made of wood obviously they have to use trees.

But mechanical pencils use plastic.

Which is more eco-friendly?

Answer 1

Considering the global trash impact, pencils are low on the impact scale. If you use refillable pencils, and you dont keep loosing them, to be thrown away. You are helping to save trees, and not contributing to non-biodegradable trash. I loose pencils every day. Ink pens are worse. Find a more important cause to get passionate about.

Answer 2

Well, you CAN re-use the mechanical kind by purchasing new lead, but so many people just dont bother and throw away the plastic part when its empty. Pencils can deteriorate or be burned, you can also just toss the shavings in the compost. Wooden pencils are more eco friendly because they wont be wasted if you try not to (by composting the shavings or throwing them somewhere where they CAN decompose like I said) and will be used longer than the mechanical pencils. Trust me, if you use the same pencil all the time, they last a LONG time.

Also take into consideration that it doesn't  use as much wood as you think because it is filled with lead.

Good question!

Answer 3

I WOULD SAY THE MECHANICAL ONE IS BECAUSE YOU ONLY HAVE TO ADD THE LEAD TO  AND IF YOU TAKE CARE OF THE PENCIL IT WILL LAST YOU A LONG TIME

Answer 4

Good LORD!  How many pencils are you using?

One large tree would likely produce millions of pencils.  Therefore, only a handful of trees produce all of the world's wooden pencils.

This is a serious example of a "f**t in a hurricane" - the average person probably uses more 2x4s in a year than pencils - and therefore uses thousands of times more wood for other purposes.

Don't worry about it!