Plantable pencils turn into peppers, cherry tomatoes

Sprout, which specializes in sustainable, germinating products, sells a pencil that grows into vegetables, herbs or flowers, including cherry tomatoes and peppers. Today, the company sells more than 450,000 pencils a month, and they are available at a variety of locations, including retailers like Whole Foods.

“We are hitting the nail on the head in an age, when people are increasingly moving away from the use-and-chuck-away culture,” Dane Michael Stausholm, Sprout’s founder and formerly a sustainability consultant for major companies, said in a press release. The goal is to become a world leader in the field of innovative, sustainable, green consumer products.

Instead of an eraser, the pencils are topped with a cap made of cellulose and containing dry soil and unsprayed seeds. When the Sprout pencil has become too short to write with, it is ready to be planted. The company chose seeds that will germinate within one to three weeks.

“Our pencils get a new lease of life when they have finished serving their primary function," he said. "Companies in particular have expressed great interest. We are witnessing an increasing desire in companies and organizations throughout the world to signal a greener, more sustainable profile. In that respect, one can safely say that Sprout has perfectly captured the spirit of the age.

“One of the major strengths of Sprout pencils is their capacity to pull such a complex issue as sustainability down to earth," he said. "One of our important tasks is to make sustainability pragmatic and comprehensible — but, most of all, fun. Our plantable pencils and paper are perfect for spotlighting the reuse of the earth’s resources. We’re talking micro level, but we’ve all got to start somewhere.”