No really. This pencil grows into a tomato

These pencils sprout vegetables
These pencils sprout vegetables

What happens to a wooden pencil after you wear it down to a stub? It gets tossed into the trash.

"There are 15 billion pencils made annually, and three million of those just in the United States. That's a lot of pencil stubs thrown away," said Michael Stausholm, CEO of Sprout World.

Denmark-based Sprout World wants to shrink this waste. The startup makes plantable pencils that grow into vegetables, herbs or flowering plants once you're done using them.





sprout world michael stausholm
Sprout World CEO Michael Stausholm.

The pencils were developed by three MIT students in 2012.






Later that year, Stausholm acquired the patents and rights to the brand and became Sprout World's CEO.


sprout world pencils 2
These plantable pencils from Sprout World grow into herb, vegetable and flowering plants.

Related: She's $10 million closer to replacing plastic bottles

The next step is to conquer the U.S. market.

Stausholm opened a small office in Boston in September to get momentum going. There are two employees there and 15 in Europe.

"America is a couple of years behind Europe in terms of embracing eco-friendliness," he said. But he thinks it's a perfect market for Sprout World pencils because its creators and manufacturers are U.S.-based.

sprout world cards
In January, Sprout World will start selling plantable greeting cards with seeds embedded in them.

The pencils are sold on Amazon (AMZN) and in Whole Foods (WFM) stores in the U.S.

Stausholm is also focused on bringing down the price. Ultimately, he wants every student around the world to use Sprout World pencils.

In January, the startup plans to roll out new products, including plantable greeting cards and colored pencils.

"We know we can't save the planet just with our products," said Stausholm. "Our mission is to at least educate people on how to be more conscious in what they buy and look for products that are reusable."

CNNMoney Sponsors