Image courtesy of Naked Binder
Parents and kids are starting to wander around stores with lists and glazed eyes, yes, back-to-school is in the air. As a parents, there are days I look forward to BTS, but being a student myself, I also dread it.
The down side of BTS is the cost and the long list of less than eco-friendly supply requirements. Each year I struggle to find green products to replace the vinyl laden, plastic filled things. I have some suggestions to green that list. I also have a few websites that may help you if you can’t find green substitutes for the traditional requirements in your town.
1. Recycled paper instead of virgin-sourced paper. Try to get as close to 100 percent recycled, post-consumer paper as you can in notebooks, folders, loose leaf paper and printer paper.
2. Seek out recycled content plastic products in scissors, rulers, pencil boxes, and binders.
3. Mine your old junk drawers for items that can be reused, like last year’s scissors and ruler.
4. Try to find crayons made with beeswax or soy instead of petroleum.
5. Look for pens, markers and highlighters made from recycled plastic.
6. There are pencils made from old denim, recycled newspaper and FSC-certified wood products.
7. Pack a waste-free lunch.
8. Avoid nasty vinyl products like binders and cheap, nearly disposable, backpacks.
9. Invest in quality and, even better, recycled content backpacks.
10. Spread the green, waste-free message at your child’s school.
Image courtesy of Reuseit
Naked Binder carries eco-friendly binders, tabs and folders.
The Ultimate Green Store carries eco-friendly school supplies and waste-free lunch items.
Reuseit carries all sorts of sustainable products ranging from reusable water bottles, waste-free lunch products to eco office supplies and reusable shopping bags.
