Plastic is still a global menace, and in several countries pens and refills constitute a large part of this problem. In India, pens are a rage for students who enter middle-school, and some governments like that in Kerala along with an environmental body called Haritha Keralam devised ways in which to recycle the pens. While the pen is mightier than the sword, this story is about a pen that grows into a tree after its use.

Lakshmi Menon founded Pureliving, an organisation that upcycles waste into usable products with a green impact. An interior-designer whose mind is filled with ideas causing positive societal impact, Lakshmi Menon found an alternative to the pen problem, attaching a positive solution to an otherwise plastic scenario. The pens are hand-rolled by local women and while the refill lands up in a landfill, it does so by planting a tree.

Pens with Seeds: The pen is made of paper from used magazines, exam papers, etc bought from second-hand paper shops. The paper is then rolled around a metal or plastic refill and stuck with glue. The seeds are placed towards the rear-end of the pen with a drop of glue. The edges of the pen are trimmed to secure the seed like a loose hood around it and is pushed out of the earth once the seed starts sprouting. The seeds called Humming-bird seeds from the Agasthya Tree require little maintenance. The pen can be planted at a minimal depth and will be pushed out of the earth as the sapling grows.