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Paper pens that can also grow into plants!

A Jashore woman’s contribution in reducing plastic waste
AZIBOR RAHMAN, Jhenidah
Have you ever wondered where the plastic-pen goes after you are done using them? After disappearing from our sight, the single-use plastic pens usually end up in landfills, eventually accumulating into a vast pile of plastic waste.
But what if you can use pens, without polluting the environment. Moreover, all these used pens can be germinated into trees.
Sounds too good to be true, right?
That’s exactly what Nasima Akhtar, a mother of two, from Jashore’s Lonpara office area has been doing.
Rather than letting discarded plastic pens contribute to pollution, Nasima has discovered a way to give these writing instruments a new lease on life.
First, Nasima collects an ink nip and an A-4 size paper. Cutting a long strip from the paper, she applies glue and rolls it tightly around the ink tube, creating a pen-like appearance. Buried at the bottom of each pen, is a vegetable, fruit or flower seeds. Once the pen serves its writing purpose, one can just bury it in a mud pot or under the soil and the seeds grow into plants.
NASIMA’S JOURNEY
Despite facing poverty that forced her to drop out of school at an early age, Nasima’s talent and determination remained unscathed.
In 1992, she married a BGB personnel who retired in 2000, and then ventured into a fish enclosure business. But within six months, he incurred substantial losses, plunging the family into financial hardship.
With a son and a daughter to care for, Nasima found herself at a crossroads. Faced with limited alternatives, she came up with the innovative idea to create an eco-friendly ballpoint pen made of paper. In 2007, she started selling these pens, which she aptly named “Shuvo Eco-Friendly Pen” after her youngest child, Shuvo.
At first, Nasima hesitated to market her pen on a larger scale, fearing that customers might not show interest. However, with the support and encouragement from her children, she started mid-scale marketing of her eco-friendly products in 2017.
Today, she sells approximately 4,000 pieces of the pens in bulk to various institutions and organisations every week. Additionally, she sells over 2,000 pens through local Jashore stationery shops. She invests Tk 4/5 to make one pen, and sells them at Tk 7/8 on wholesale.
Habibur Rahman, her neighbour and a retired teacher, said, “My students use these pens and put it under soil after use. A flower or vegetables sprout from it later.”
Kabya Rahman, a student of Sammiloni Secondary School, said they are not only drawn to the smooth writing experience but also motivated to use more eco friendly products.
Masud Ahmed Sanju, president of Environment and Biodiversity in Jhenidah, lauded Nasima’s innovation. He said the pen’s composition of natural fibers ensures it contains no harmful materials.
Nasima said she plans to expand the business to provide jobs to local women. She needs a paper cutter machine and a colour printer to ensure maximum supply.
“I can make 200-250 pens every day. These pens are non biodegradable and hence very environment friendly,” she said. “But I want to expand my business. If I can get support from the government, I will be able to do so and also support women in my area,” she told this correspondent.