It’s that time of year again. Back to Walmart for those school supplies for the kiddos. Load up your cart with binders, notebooks and lots of pencils. We use pencils every day, but where do these things even come from? Pencils are just one other tool that we encounter almost on a daily basis, whether you are a student, a teacher, a business person, a draftsman, an artist, etc. However, we rarely give a second thought to these wooden sticks.
When you take a step back and look at what it takes to make a pencil, distribute those pencils, and get them in your child’s backpack, it might blow your mind. It might even make you laugh when you realize that the parts that make up these wooden sticks have probably traveled more than you have! So where did they come from?
First, we have to think about what makes a pencil…
Graphite
Graphite is a crystalline carbon that actually shares many of the chemical characteristics of diamonds… who knew you were writing with the cousin of a diamond? Graphite has to be mined from deposits that are deep within the earth and only found in specific locations. Because of this flaky, greasy substance being so geo-specific, most of the graphite we use in pencils comes from mines in China. Pencil manufacturers in the United States import this raw material from China using mostly ocean freight transportation. These little flakes literally travel the world so that your child can learn their multiplication tables.
Cedar
Not all wood is created equal. Wood that is able to be used in pencils is very unique. It has to be hard enough to stand the pressure of writing, soft enough to be able to sharpen, and strong enough to endure long trips that fluctuate in temperature. Cedar wood from California is the best wood for pencil-making. This wood will travel in huge flatbeds across the country to be shaped into many different wooden objects. After selecting only the best wood for our beloved writing utensils, the cedar boards are shipped to the pencil manufacturing facility over long distances, by long-haul or OTR truckers.
Rubber
This ingredient is what makes up the eraser at the top of our little wooden utensils and predominately comes from Malaysia. Becuase of this, shipments of rubber must travel over sea, land and sometimes air just to get to the end of that little wooden stick.
All of these products are mixed together in the magical process of manufacturing, and wallah: The pencil has been born! But now we must get those pencils to the final customer. Hundreds of thousands of pencils are then packed up into crates in the backs of trailers to be shipped to all of the major distributors of school supplies. The ingredients were hand picked for quality, strength, and endurance so that they could make this arduous journey to Walmarts across the country.
Now you know that the pack of pencils you are holding in your hand is much more than you thought it was. Now you know how it ships.
Want us to ship some pencils for you? Maybe you don’t have pencils to ship, but I bet we could help with whatever you do have!