Calepino No. 5: a very green, red notebook

No, I'm not colour-blind. This is a green, red notebook!

Scrib has already given you the specifications on this last week, but what has especially appealed to me about this notebook are the recycled/recyclable contents.

The notebook has two covers: a buff/beige coloured outer cover, made of very stiff card (and with beautiful letterpress lettering), and an inner red card cover (not so thick, but still with the letterpress lettering). There are 64 pages of 8mm ruled paper, with the ruling in red and the notebooks stitched, also in red. A red paper belly-band holds the set of two notebooks together.

The paper is made from 100% recycled fibres, with a variety of certifications (European Eco-label, FSC label, PEFC and ISO 1401). The cover and case are both 100% too ("Ange Bleu" Eco-label), and the ink is vegetable based. All in all the eco credentials are very good.

Why am I banging on about this?

Well, regular readers will know that I'm trying to cut down how much plastic or non-biodegradable stuff I buy. I don't like notebooks clad in oil-based, non-biodegradable plastic. When I leave this earth, I'd like to leave as small a footprint as possible. So, when I see a notebook that's well-built, well-designed and made of both recycled and recyclable components, it makes my heart sing.

I scribble a lot. I have notebooks I will keep, but I also have a lot of notebooks that will get tossed. These are the ones where I plan my day, scrawl random notes etc. and ultimately process these hieroglyphics into two camps: "discard", or "file properly". I have always tried to use either scrap paper, or card-covered notebooks for these "scrappy notes" because once the notebook is finished, it will be going in the recycling bin.

The Calepino is probably a little too nice a notebook for "scrappy notes" (I always have struggled to allow myself nice things for everyday stuff), but will make an excellent "file properly" notebook.

This is an excellent notebook and a brilliant size. Almost A5 (as in, the height is 21cm, but the width is only 13.5cm) it won't take up too much room on a desk, and having sturdy card covers, rather than hardback, it won't add much mass to a bag, either.

Set of two lined (red ink and inner cover)

Set of two plain (blue ink and inner cover)

Set of two graph (green ink and inner cover)