Everyone has them: dead pens and markers lying in the bottom of your desk drawer like a sad literary graveyard.   And as a writer, I've got more than my fair share of used writing instruments. I didn’t know what to do with them, until now.   The REAL Deal Reuse Store allows you to drop off your used pens and pen caps, mechanical pencils, markers and marker caps, permanent markets and permanent market caps, highlighters and highlighter caps. REAL then delivers them to Staples, which runs a recycling program out of their store in partnership with waste management company, TerraCycle.   The two companies have partnered up in an effort to provide a second life for used writing instruments. Once collected, they're separated by material composition and then are cleaned, shredded, and made into new recycled products. Through the in-store collections across Canada, over two million writing instruments have been diverted from landfills.     Looking for ways to recycle household waste that isn't available through recycling programs offered through our municipalities has become really important to me. Lately, I've become more and more critical of things I'm throwing in the trash. Before, I wouldn't have thought twice about tossing another dead pen in the garbage.   Now, I've got an alternative. Although the pen recycling program isn't run by REAL, president Barb Hicks, said offering to collect the items at the reuse store, an effort that started last fall, helps make recycling the items more accessible for everyone.   Hicks said it's a small thing, but recycling them instead of throwing them out can make a difference.   I've now got a box for people in our newsroom to put their dead pens in. I've committed to disposing of them through this recycling program. It'll be interesting how many pens, pencils, highlighters and markers we can divert from the landfill over the next couple of years.   To find out more about products REAL can help you recycle, visit: https://www.realaction.ca/.