General Pencil's "Kimberly 9XXB" is the winner for both darkness, and smudge resistance.
Bold statement, but here it is:
We don't believe that whatever kids are doing with black markers in school, justifies forever on the planet.
See "Replaces" tab for information about where spent markers end up
When a plastic marker or pen is kaput, here's where it will end up:
Landfill - forever
Ocean - until sun + waves + time break it into zillions of pieces of forever lasting microplastics
Litter - Yes, pen and marker litter happens. I have photos (lots of them). Until a car rolls over it and turns the plastic into zillions of pieces of forever lasting microplastics. Those will eventually wash down a storm drain and make their winding way to the ocean to join the rest of the microplastic pollution.
Incineration - That's what the "recycling" schemes are. Sorry to say that no one is taking dried up markers and turning them into new markers. Incinerating plastic = toxic gases, more CO2 emissions, and toxic ash that has to be disposed of.
A little pile of painted wood shavings (landfill)
When we're big important, we'll see if we can get General Pencils to provide them to us UNpainted
