Write it down: There's a new product on the way that could erase some of America's solid waste problems.
A pencil, of all things.Among all the promotions and hype preceding the annual Earth Day observance next week, one of the most unusual is the "American EcoWriter." It's a pencil that looks just like the standard yellow No. 2 that you wore out by the dozen in high school.
But the barrel, or exterior shaft, of the EcoWriter is made up of fibers from old newspapers and cardboard - products that continue to pour into the nation's bulging landfills.
A pair of Covington, Tenn., facilities helped develop the product, touted by marketers as "the first major structural advance in pencil composition in more than 100 years." The fibers from the newsprint and cardboard are bound with special resins that make the pencils as strong as traditional cedar ones.
The pencils are being manufactured by a Faber-Castell Corp. plant in Lewisburg, Tenn.
The pencils should be in stores by August.