I”m not a parent, but I was a student (oh a few years back.) But I remember that school involved a lot of disposables, notebooks, pencils, backpacks that dont’ make it through the year. Here are a few things I thought up, as well as some ideas I’ve gathered to start your school year off green.
- Buy your older student a good quality backpack that he wont destroy in a year. If its too boring for them think of ways you can enhance it with materials from home. Sew on patches, use fabric paint or key chains.
- For younger students check out good will for used bags that are cheaper so that when/if it falls apart you didn’t buy new or waste a lot of money.
- Packing lunch for your child is a great way to control the quality and healthiness of the food they eat but remember to use glass or plastic re-usable containers. Another option would be a Snack Taxi or something similar from Etsy or Get N’ Green.
- Remember to use foods that incorporate whole grains and try to avoid pre-packaged foods when possible. For more great tips on healthy school lunches and snacks check out this article from Naturally Savy.
- Buy recycled, the more recycled content in your products the better. You can buy recycled notebooks, pencils, rulers, paper clips, binders, and so much more you just have to look.
- For a few more great tips about taking inventory and only buying what you need from Treehugger.
Another fun thing to do if you are good with sewing is making your own cloth lunch sacks instead of using paper bags. You can make them cute and if they get dirty, you can easily toss them into the wash. Plus, they’re incredibly easy to make 🙂