Earth Equity News

'Green' Crayons! By Stephanie I. Cohen, CSMonitor, October 29, 2008. "Crayons have been a staple in schools for more than 100 years, and most of the time they're made from paraffin wax. Paraffin is a byproduct of petroleum... And paraffin wax can take decades or even up to a century to decompose, or break down, once it gets to the garbage dump, estimates Bernie Tao, a professor at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. Making crayons from soy wax has environmental benefits because soy is a renewable resource and decomposes more quickly than paraffin wax. Crayola, the biggest manufacturer of crayons, makes around 12 million paraffin-wax crayons each day and more than 3 billion crayons each year. Add in all the paraffin crayons produced by other companies, and there are a lot of crayons floating around the globe taking a long time to decompose…Barbara Lee DaBoll, a teacher and entrepreneur in California, started making her own soy crayons, called Crayon Rocks, a year and a half ago. These crayons are made with soy wax and are shaped like smooth, triangular pebbles. The crayons were originally designed for special-education students who have trouble gripping regular crayons. But they have since found an avid following among environmentally minded shoppers… Ms. DaBoll says. 'You get a lot of beautiful texture. It looks like an oil pastel; they're so creamy.'"