Dreaming of greening your back to school routine? Nowadays there is a bounty of eco-conscious choices out there! While our recommendation is to try and use what you already have, with school supplies sometimes that isn’t always an option. So from pop-art folders crafted from your favorite juice drinks to pencils that you can read as well as write with, here are our 5 tops picks for the best green back to school buys!
Some notebooks claim to be tree-friendly, but be sure to read the fine print – they may be mostly new paper with just a bit of recycled mixed in. New Leaf notebooks are the real deal. Made out of 100% post consumer recycled paper, with renewable energy in the USA, they’re affordable and good-looking, which means they really stack up when it comes to what we’re looking for in an eco-friendly notebook. And just in time for school they recently debuted a 100% recycled back to school bundle complete with four notebooks, binders, filler paper, and a set of eco pens.
These quirky and fun pencils are made entirely from recycled newspapers wrapped tightly around a column of no. 2 lead, and are just as strong as one made the old fashioned way.
This innovative homework folder is made of waste drink pouches that are collected by Terracycle’s ingenious program and diverted from the dump. They add a punch of pop-art to any desk and $.02 is donated to a nonprofit organization or charity for each drink pouch collected through the program.
When your alarm clock is blaring and you’re already late for the bus, there isn’t much time to charge your cell phone and mp3 player on busy mornings. But with these stylish NoonSolar bags, that isn’t an issue. Just let your bag soak up the power of the sun and you’re ready to add (free) juice to your favorite small electronics on the go.
This sleek and supercompact personal computer is about 80% smaller, uses about 70% less energy, and contains about 75% less printed documentation by weight than a standard desktop. Plus the materials are 95% recyclable and it comes with a system-recycling kit. The choice of juicy candy colors it comes in doesn’t hurt either!
Ah, my brother just bought a folder similar to those drink pouch ones, except it was made from potato chip bags – they make me wish I still needed folders in college.
yeah green! but is it feasible? I mean look at the pencils. $2.95 for 12 pencils. Converting it to my local Indian Rupees it comes to Rs12 for a pencil. I can get a pack of 10 pencils for about Rs50 – could I convince anyone to shell out more than the double price. And the Solar bag! You could get a few solar cookers or a solar water heater or heck a solar panel for that cost which would be better value for money – more energy efficient and much better suited to help the environment! I am not opposed to these ideas but to make an impact they have to be mass marketed and reach substantial volumes – otherwise they would end up just being a fad! So market them with competitive prices and then see them make the impact
These are neat ideas…
Who gets to decide that the cowhide used in the bags is “ethically-sourced” though? That seems weird to me…
Many ideas and resources for our Keep Texas Beautiful volunteers.