Heirloom Sharpie
Do you remember when your grandfather passed down his trusted Sharpie marker to you? You looked in awe at the worn patina of its steel shaft, hinting at the countless boxes marked up and posters made over the years. You took a good whiff of the noxious ink, thinking of how you would pass it to your grandchild one day.
Chances are, if your grandfather gave you an heirloom, it wasn’t a Sharpie, which are as disposable as they are indispensable.
Well no longer.
Sharpie now has a refillable, stainless steel-bodied model worthy of being passed down to future generations…for a mere $8.99 and $2.49 refill cartridge.
We’ve talked about heirloom design here before; it’s the idea that the stuff we bring into our lives is high enough quality to be handed down to future generations. This is all well and good for watches, pens and cast iron pans, but there are certain things we assume are inherently disposable like Sharpies.
The reason Sharpies are considered disposable is mostly attributable to its plastic constructions. Nothing says disposability like plastic. Unlike metal, wood or glass, plastic begs to be mistreated, broken and thrown away. While a very useful material, not everything has to be plastic. A website called Life without Plastic proves this, offering a range of products like food storage (pictured below) and toiletries made of non-plastic materials.
While a life only filled with heirloom quality/non-plastic items might take a lot of effort and money, exchanging a few items like your Sharpie and to-go containers with items that will last for years makes good economic and environmental sense.
Do you know of an heirloom quality item that replaces a commonly disposable item? Let us know in our comments section.
via Core77