A Greener Way To Go Back To School [Week 26]
It’s time to start getting ready to go back to school! Let’s look at some eco-friendly tips for back to school supplies and for into your new school year.
Your kids may be headed back to the classroom or preparing for at-home learning. You may have a first timer or an almost adult *sniff sniff! Or maybe you are going back to school as an adult. Either way here are some tips and resources to ensure a more eco-friendly school year.
Amanda Drews, 11 minute read
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The first thing to always think about when preparing for back to school is what do you already have? Take inventory of last year’s school supplies and make a list of what you have and what you need. At the end of the year, store what you have that can be used again next year all in the same place where you’ll be able to find it.
Back to school clothing
Teach your kids the importance of reusing items of clothing and planning a wardrobe that they will actually wear. You may have a student that appreciates a good bargain find at a thrift store or maybe you have a fasionista on your hands. Encourage them to find used clothes first or give a firm budget on spending money for new school clothes. They’ll get more bang for their buck by shopping at consignment, thrift or getting used clothing.
Arrange a clothing swap! They may even want to wait a bit until after school starts to see what the other students are wearing. You’d hate to spent a ton of money on a fashion that ends up being “sooo last year”.
Backpacks
A student’s backpack has to be durable enough to hold all their materials. It’s also a big statement piece about what your learner likes. Clothing changes throughout the school year, but the backpack is a constant representation of who this student is. It helps add to their sense of fashion and showcases their likes. I remember as a kid when I graduated from a cartoon character backpack and started sporting a more stylish one. I felt so sophisticated! Although I took a step back (in my middle school mind) when I opted for a Tweety Bird themed one for my next bag without even thinking.
Worried about my Kindergartener wanting to go to school, I told him I would look for a Mario or Ninjago backpack for him. I figure he can get a new one every new school if I find a used one online for cheap. After looking for a few weeks at the end of the summer, I realized most of the backpacks were gone but I got him one for $3 at a thrift store with pizzas on it and he seems just as thrilled as if I had bought him a far more expensive new cartoon themed out one.
To choose the best backpack for your student, consider some of the following:
- What age are they now and how fast will they grow into or out of a backpack?
- Is it more important that the backpack is durable and long-lasting or that it looks a certain way?
- Can anyone else in the family use it after the student is done with it? Think younger siblings.
- What materials is the backpack made of? Are they recycled materials? New? Reused?
- Can you find a backpack at a consignment store, Facebook marketplace, thrift shop or a local Buy Nothing group?
- Does the student need a new backpack every year? How about from school to school?
- Will the student like the style of backpack next year or will they out grow that interest.
If you are on the hunt for a new backpack, consider some of the following:
Terrathread
Terrathread is an affordable fair trade, GOTS, carbon neutral, B corp company that makes their backpacks with organic cotton. Whoah! They support Feeding America to help provide nutritious meals to families in need. Check out their backpacks here.
Terra Thread
Core Hemp Boho Backpacks
Core hemp is a company that strives to make fair-trade Nepal made sustainably grown hemp bags. Their fanny packs are also very HIP as well.
Fjallraven Kanken Classic Backpack
Fjallraven uses sustainable models throughout their entire company. When you buy something from them, you know you’re contributing to a good company as a whole instead of just one greenwashed item that a larger company offers.
JanSport Recycled SuperBreak Backpack
Made with recycled material, Jansport offers an affordable eco-friendly made backpack. Check here and peek at the black, green, red and yellow options. And here for more colors.
LaBante London
LaBante London features bags from recycled polyester made from plastic bottles. They are cruelty-free and when you make a purchase, you choose which cause you want to donate 10% to. Their factories in China are SEDEX certified and they are committed to empowering women by providing maternity leave and hiring women in their design and production teams. Check out their vegan leather backpacks here.
LaBante London
Holly and Tanager
This woman owned company creates stylish bags out of recycled nylon.
Day Owl
Day Owl’s backpack features a 100% recycled post consumer plastic bottles
Diosa
Diosa is a 1% for the planet and 1% for women company striving to make positive changes for women around the world. They feature a stylish, business style backpack for women made of vegan leather.
Andi
The ANDI New York Company offers 100% vegan products and 95% of their products are made with post-consumer recycled plastics. Their recycled fabrics have Global Recycle Standard (GRS) and Taiwan Green Mark certifications.
Solgaard Design
Made from ocean plastic, Solgaard Design’s goal is to “help cut ocean plastic in half by 2025”.
Torrain
Similar to the Square upcycled backpacks, Torrain’s bags are also made from upcycling different types of bags whether they are are malt, feed cement bags or from plastic bottles.
Square Upcycled Backpacks
I would say these are one of my favorite backpacks I’ve seen because they are made of upcycled animal feed bags. This makes each one somewhat unique. The packaging materials and tags are 100% recycled and printed with natural dyes. The company has set out to create jobs for artisans in Cambodia who have been displaced from their farmlands because of landmines or communities affected by polio.
Parkland
Parkland through Kind Humans has super cute kids backpacks made of recycled materials. You also get to give 3% back to the cause of your choice when making a purchase.
Lego
If you have an extreme Lego nerd at home (and I say that in a good way), the Lego Brick Backpack is made from recycled polyester. They have a bunch of different colors including sparkly ones!
Pottery Barn Kids
Pottery Barn Kids has a selection of recycled plastic bottle backpacks in some fun patterns.
United By Blue
United By Blue prides themselves on sustainable materials and ethical manufacturing and removes 1 pound of ocean trash for every product purchased.
Art supplies and paper usage
Save what paper you can and brainstorm for alternatives. I am a keeper of the things. My mom kept just about every art project and worksheet I ever brought home from school and apparently I’m following down that same path. I have a folder for all the keep-able art and a folder for the worksheets that are one sided. Use the other side as scrap paper instead of post-its for reminders or give them to your kid to color on. The keep-able art will likely stay in the folder throughout the year and then I’ll go back through and take photos before recycling (as long as they aren’t covered in paint) or just keep the really precious ones.
If you are off to college, see if you can rent, borrow or buy used textbooks instead of buying brand new ones. Try Amazon Textbook Rental, ecampus.com or Ebay. They are SO expensive anyways, you’re sure to come out a winner even if you can only find a couple this way.
Eco-friendly paper choices
It may not be up to individual teachers where they source paper from but if they have a say in the matter, encourage your school to use something other than virgin paper for printing. Too expensive? Brainstorm ways paper usage can be reduced in order to make the extra costs null. What can be done online, with reusable materials or in a different way? If anything, you can purchase a greener paper for at home printing.
There are different choices when it comes to a more eco-friendly paper and each has their pros and cons. Look for paper that has chlorine-free manufacturing methods, is FSC or SFI certified, ISO 14001 certified or recycled.
New Leaf Paper– This women owned B corp offers chlorine free, FSC certified, Ancient Forest Friendly, Canopy and SCS global services assessed paper.
PrintWorks– 100% post-consumer recycled paper made in the USA.
Hammermill– 100% post-consumer recycled paper, SFI certified, made in the USA
TreeZero– made from Bagasse, this sugar cane residue made paper is 100% postconsumer recycled and compostable (where applicable).
Hp Bright White Printer Paper– This is a made in USA FSC certified paper.
Notebooks, binders and folders
Notebooks, binders and folders are a standard back-to-school item. For me, there’s some hard core nostalgia in the thought of shopping for a new Lisa Frank folder at Target during back-to-school shopping. Try to use the same folders from year to year and labeling them with sticker labels. Maybe your younger student gets to pick out one cool new folder each year and you end up using that in your filing system for that grade’s items after the school year is over.
Paperage Recycled notebook– this small notebook has pages and a cover made of recycled materials with the paper coming from 100% post-consumer recycled materials.
Environotes 3 subject college ruled notebook– for something a little more heavy duty, look to this USA made notebook with sugarcane fiber and minimum 30% post-consumer content
Rocketbook Smart Reuasable Notebook– if you are so into saving paper that you don’t want to use it all, or you feel your notebooks should be saved as you go, try this one. I have never used one but it looks like you can scan into your phone to catalog what you just wrote and clean it with a damp cloth.
Samsill Earth’s Choice Biobased Durable 3 Ring Binders– The polypropylene cover is made of up to 25% plant based renewable plastic and the boards are 100% recycled fiber.
Oxford Two-Pocket Folders– These are your basic folders made with 10% post consumer and 10% recycled fibers.
Reuse art supplies from year to year.
If a crayon still has life in it, use it! Encourage teachers to keep a bucket of used crayons to carry over to the next year and volunteer to sort them for your student’s teacher. They don’t need extra work added on. Or get the school sustainability club to do it.
Those crayons that have made it to the too-short-to-hold stage, can get sent in to The National Crayon Recycling Program. They prefer if wrappers are left on but will accept crayons with or without wrappers. They even turn the wrappers into fire starters you can purchase! The crayons get turned into fun shaped and multicolored Crazy Crayons.
If you’re looking for an alternative to traditional, non-biodegradable paraffin wax (derived from petroleum) crayons, you can opt for beeswax crayons or vegan soy crayons. Such as Honey Sticks, Faber-Castell, OOLY, or Prang brands.
Pens and Pencils
Tip-The Infinity Pencil– Well, I’ve never tried one and I still don’t totally understand how it works but the Tip Infinity Pencil claims that it replaces 100 wood pencils. They also plant a tree for every pencil purchased.
Ecotree Eco-friendly Rainbow pencil- Just the thought of seeing those colorful rainbow pencil shavings is enough to make me want to get one of these recycled papers pencils!
Eco Newspaper Pencil– These pencils are made from 100% recycled paper and newspaper.
Sprout Seed Pencil– This is certainly a unique one. When you are done with your pencil, just stick it in some soil and watch it grow into what the pencil is labeled as. Here’s a thing….if you’re using the entire pencil and not wasting it, you’re going to have a hard time figuring out what you’re planting with your little pencil nubbin. Right? Maybe I’m missing something. Anyways, the actual pencils are made from FSC certified wood.
Simply Genius Eco-Friendly Pens– The barrels on these pens are made from recycled cardboard and the tips from BPA free ABS plastic and wheat stalk.
Other art supplies
Onyx Green Erasers- These erasers are made from recycled rubber.
Onyx and Green Scissors– These scissors have a handle that’s made of biodegradable corn plastic. So if you are trying to avoid plastics all together, this may be for you. But let’s also keep in mind that it’s not like you can just throw the whole thing in composting and that corn plastic will release methane while decomposing in a landfill. So you can be the judge on which is better/worse because right now there’s not standard metric for measuring that impact.
Onyx and Green 12 inch/ 30 cm Bamboo Ruler
Keep reducing, reusing and recycling even while at school
Make sure your student remembers the rules of recycling and composting. If your school doesn’t do composting or recycling but you do at home, come up with a system to be able to safely take home your waste without getting it all over your backpack. Maybe a lunch bag that’s washable that food can be dumped into.
In 5th grade I had guinea pigs. All our school lunches came with a packet of baby carrots that no one wanted to eat. So guess what I had everyday at lunch, yup, a big pile of carrots that kids would just drop off at my table!
Check in every once in a while to make sure your student is eating most of their food at school. If hot lunch isn’t their thing and it just gets wasted every day, have a discussion about what you can do to prevent wasted food. If you are packing a lunch, look into reusable bag options. You really shouldn’t need to buy a silverware kit. You can easily find used silverware at thrift stores or estate sales.
Check out these options for your next packed meal.
ECO lunchbox
This women owned, B corp company offers plastic free, carbon offsetting lunch packing goodness.
SoYoung Lunch Bags
If you are looking for an insulated lunch bag, SoYoung offers designs for both kids and adults.
Full Circle Zip Tuck Kids Reusable Plastic Food and Storage Bag
The days of using a plastic ziploc bag everyday are over. Try out this B corp’s bags made from BPA free recycled plastic.
Beeswax Food Wraps
I love to wrap my fruits in these food wraps. Just wash them with cold water when you’re done!
Transportation
If your district provides you with busing, that will be the greenest option for your student to get to school if they won’t be walking or biking. Now you can certainly get into the logistics of whether or not it would be greener if you have an electric car. I don’t have a definite answer for that one but I imagine there are some factors. Are there other children at the bus stop? Will the bus stop and wait if they don’t see you? Would the bus be rerouted if you never took it? Are you often running for the bus causing it to sit and idle? What type of bus does the school use?
Beyond the nitty gritty of figuring out emissions, here are some ways to help make your school greener when it comes to transportation:
- Encourage walking and biking when it’s safe to do so. Don’t feel comfortable letting your kid go alone? Are you able to go with them and squeeze your workout in at the same time?
- Take the bus when walking or biking isn’t practical
- Check your state’s laws on idling here.
- Ask your school to create signs for the parent pick-up zones to encourage engines being turned off
- Support your school district in exploring options for replacing diesel school buses with propane, CNG and electric options
Get involved
Get involved with your school. Start a culture of sustainability in your school if it doesn’t seem like there’s a lot of green efforts happening already. Seek out groups and clubs or start one yourself! Get a staff member on board so that you can have a deeper connection to the school. If you’re having a hard time getting a sponsor you could send out a bunch of emails to staff or if you have a younger student, have them talk to staff directly while you are there. How would you be able to say no to a first grader that wants to save the planet?
Do your research on who is running for your school board. Support people who have sustainability, science, and inclusivity on their agendas. When you run into issues, always come back to what’s best for the children that is also possible for the district to accomplish. Not every school can afford the upfront costs of an electric bus but it may ultimately save money and certainly be better for the air quality for the neighborhood.
Start a school garden or pollinator yard. If you have gardening skills and can donate your time, see if your school has any space where they can start a garden. Whether it’s a big space or a very small patch, students can benefit from learning how to utilize the space they are giving to grow something. Get students involved with taking care of the space and watching it grow!
The Takeaway
Whatever you can reuse or buy a greener version of for back to school shopping is a win! Do what you can. Try to anticipate your school supply needs for 4 or 5 years at a time.
If you are a reader in Australia, check out Buy Eco Green for school and office materials. For UK made plus promo items, take a peek at Green & Good.
If you are looking for greener promotional products for your school, office or sports team, check out USA made eco promotional products.
1). Take inventory of what you already have for going back to school.
2). Make a list of what you need.
3). Seek out the most eco-friendly back to school supplies!
4). Move on to Week 27- 6 Ways To Become An Eco-Volunteer
