The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Does anyone remember the funny Staples commercial?  It makes me smirk every time, and now  at Christmas when I hear the original tune, I think of the commercial ;)

Well, the "most wonderful time of year" when the kids head back to school and hit the books, is just a few days away.  So why not send them back with a few eco-friendly school supplies?  One of my favorite green pens is the Pilot Bottle 2 Pen or B2P.  It's the "world's first pen made from recycled bottles", writes nice and smooth, and the kids can brag that they are using a pen made from 89% post-consumer recycled plastic bottles.   

It's hard to believe but my youngest is about to begin his last year of elementary school.  A few things almost all elementary school teachers ask children to bring are crayons, colored pencils, and markers to school.  For years my top pick has been Crayola.  Not only do I like Crayola's products, but I'm thrilled with their green initiatives.  Crayola is committed to using renewable energy, reducing waste, and "helping protect the environment, so children have a cleaner, greener planet".   Crayola's initiative to harness the power of the sun, and build a 30,000 panel solar farm on 20-acres of it's land is impressive.  According to Crayola, the panels produce enough power to make 1 billion Crayola crayons and 500 million markers a year.  Not only are their markers made with solar power, but they are manufactured with re-ground plastic scrap from marker production.  Although the entire marker is not recyclable, the #5 plastic caps can be recycled, and if the tip and reservoir are removed, the marker barrels can also be recycled.  Finally, Crayola's colored pencils are never made from endangered or rainforest wood, but are made from reforested wood; for every tree used, another of the same kind is planted. 

When it comes to paper, there are many eco-friendly options as well.  Staples sells Eco-friendly composition books and wirebound notebooks made with 80% sugarcane waste and printed with "eco-conscious vegetable-and-water based inks."  Other options, available at Target are the trendy and cute Greenroom products made with soy inks and recycled paper; recycled paper notebooks, recycled 3-ring binders, tree-free notebooks made from banana paper, recycled file folders, and recycled journals.

Even pencils, a staple for the school-bound, are now more eco-friendly.  For precision pencils, there are Pentel EnerGize-X Mechanical pencils made of 84% recycled plastic and making them more eco-friendly is the fact that they are refillable.  For traditional pencils think "green"...not only are the Paper Mate Earth Write pencils green on the outside, but they are also green on the inside and made with 100% recycled wood.

So send them back with some guilt free eco-friendly products and as they board the bus and you wave good-bye, go ahead and smirk as "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year" commercial plays in your head.  

Lunchtime!!! - Day 18

"Lunchtime trash is second only to office paper as the leading source of school waste." (Green Teacher magazine, Fall 2004)

Bringing your own lunch is usually more cost effective (and healthier), and with the exception of the occasional purchased lunch when there is nothing left in the house to send, my kids, hubby, and I bring their own lunches to school and work. We use reusable lunch bags and eliminate the waste of paper lunch bags.

Rosebud noticed that her friend brought paper bag lunches and asked her why she didn't use a reusable bag. She pointed out that trees were killed to make the paper bags that were used only once and not recycled, and that the trees are good for the environment. Her friend said that it was easier, and that way she didn't have to go back to her locker to put away the reusable lunch bag. Hmmm, she does return to her locker every day, so that reasoning didn't make sense to Rosebud. Rosebud, once again you are making me proud just for questioning your friend and pointing out the obvious facts. Who knows, maybe your friend will have a change of heart and choose a reusable lunch bag to use instead :)

Schools need to learn/teach more about recycling - Day 12

Ok, so it makes NO sense that in the kids' lunchrooms they do NOT have recycle bins! What kind of example is that? Why wouldn't they have bins? No one wants to empty them? I mean it would cut down on the amount of garbage, and that would save the schools money. They do recycle paper from the classrooms, so why not plastic bottles, yogurt containers, fruit cup containers, plastic spoons etc? I mean most families recycle in our town, so the kids already know the system, and if they DON'T recycle at home, they should....those that didn't already know about recycling could LEARN it at school and teach their families. Hmm I wonder how hard it would be to convince the schools to recycle?

Books - Day 6

I'm catching a bit of spring fever, and as a result things are getting cleaned out!  We've purged some books and movies, and instead of throwing them away, we donated them to our local library for reuse and re-enjoyment :)  Please don't ever throw out books or media, someone will happily reuse them whether it is the library, local doctor or dentist's office, or school.  Some libraries and schools do book swaps or book sales with donated books and media.  It feels good to give to others, and it feels good to declutter, it's a WIN-WIN!  Happy donating!