Papergeist planners and notebooks

Recycled paper planners and notebooks seem to be very popular right now, which is great. I'm all for not cutting down trees to feed my book habit. But even recycled paper has to go through some amount of processing, and no matter how ecological it is, it uses resources like electricity and water to process.

Papergeist has gone that much further past recycled paper, to re-using paper and covers without processing them. They call it "post post consumer." Their covers are made from, get ready: vintage record covers from second hand stores or even rescued from the curb. The reclaimed office paper is "french folded" so that the printed side is not visible, and even marker won't show through to the other side of the page. They'll even buy back the coil from your book when you are finished with it to use in your next book and give you $5 off.

The books come in a variety of formats: blank, lined (journal), To Do list, or (yay!!) weekly appointments (planners!). The planner (shown above) has the days of the week printed, but no dates so you can start it anytime or use it only on weeks when you need it. I think this is very clever, and the most ecologically sound you can get for a planner. You don't have to start the planner on January 1 or July 1 or whenever the printed days begin to use every page. You date it, so you start it when you want.

The covers are absolutely unique. You can browse their current selection (their store is in real time) and choose your cover, then specify how you want the interior pages. They spiral bind it all into a book and there you have your very own, completely customized, fully re-used, absolutely unique book. You can be sure that nobody else will have the same book!

I think this is a really cool idea! I love customization, and the vintage covers look very retro-cool. Their low ecological impact is very admirable, and I'm glad to see a company that is so forward-thinking. Especially these days when climate and ecological impact seems to be on everyone's mind!