Green Back To School Supplies

Dear Greenius,

My kids came home with a long list of “school supplies” that they apparently need in order to succeed. Is there such a thing as “green” school supplies?

–Manic Mommy

Dear Manic,

If anything makes the bitter pill of back-to-school easier for kids to swallow, it’s sending them off in cool clothes toting a backpack full of brand-spanking-new school supplies. Pencils, erasers, binders and snow-white paper-filled notebooks.

Indeed, more than 14 billion pencils are manufactured every year – enough to circle the globe 62 times. Add in highlighters, pens, crayons and other paraphernalia that students need to go about the business of learning and you’ve got a heck of a lotta stuff. But is there a better way? A greener way to outfit and stock the kids of Canada? You bet there is.

Start with that often ignored R of the popular environmental mantra and reuse. My guess is at least a few of the 64-pack of last year’s colored pencils just need a good sharpening. (Cotton white? Soft peach?) And you can likely find pencils lying around – check drawers and the bottoms of backpacks.

But if you must buy new supplies, consider this:

Start by purchasing wood pencils certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (or FSC for short). FSC wood comes from forests that are managed in a responsible and sustainable manner. Dixon Ticonderoga makes HB pencils out of FSC-certified wood and they’re widely available. The company also produces colored pencils. Paper Mate makes recycled pencils called EarthWrite that are available at most office supply stores. Smencils are colored pencils that smell (in a good way) and are made from recycled newspaper and biodegradable plastic.

If paper is on your to-buy list, source paper that is at least 30% post-consumer content. You can find it easily. Harder to find but better still is 100% post-consumer content.

To hold your paper, Office Depot boasts binders made of 100% recycled materials. Office Max and Staples both stock notebooks made from varying percentages of post-consumer waste.

Kids can cut with recycled stainless-steel scissors with handles made from 30% post-consumer plastic. And 3M’s ubiquitous Post-It notes are also available in 100% recycled versions.

Speaking of supplies, if you've got rulers, erasers or pencils lying around unused, check with your local Ten Thousand Villages' store. Many of the store’s 80 American or 40 Canadian locations collect supplies to send to children around the world.

Eco-Pack It! PVC rears its ugly head in the backpack department, especially in those oh-so-toxic tot versions featuring Dora or The Wiggles. The problem with vinyl is it looks a lot like any other less-evil plastic. Yet, PVC frequently contains lead and phthalates, two chemical bullies we don’t want anywhere near our children.

You can often sniff out PVC: if the product you’re considering smells like a beach ball, toss it. Or stick to natural materials, like hemp which is almost indestructible!), organic cotton and recycled rubber, though these sometimes look a bit more hippie than hip. A company called Ecogear offers packs that look pretty much like all the others – but without the PVC.

Leslie Garrett is an award-winning journalist and author of The Virtuous Consumer: Your Essential Shopping Guide for a Better, Kinder, Healthier World (and one our kids will thank us for!). Visit her at www.virtuousconsumer.com

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