Sustainable School Supplies!

When people consider making their lives more sustainable, they often tackle eliminating waste in their personal lives. Common zero or low-waste swaps include travel mugs, reusable containers, and buying second-hand clothing, and while these are amazing choices, few people also consider the environmental impact that their school or work habits have! This guide outlines a few ways to make decisions to reduce waste with your school/office supplies. While this is a guide giving a few suggestions for low waste swaps, do not buy them when you have functional items already at hand! Always remember to use up whatever product you currently have before buying a new one!

Paper Products

Everyone knows the old saying: reduce, reuse, recycle. It can't hurt to keep this in mind when considering buying paper products, but we can take it a step further. Search for paper products that are either made from recycled materials, or are FSC certified (ideally both!). Using recycled paper (and recycling your used paper) helps save precious primary forest from deforestation, and also reduces the amount of resources, such as fossil fuels, that go into harvesting those forests. It also helps us reduce CO2 emissions, and sink more atmospheric carbon because there are more trees! Try to search for paper that contains a percentage of post-consumer material that is as close to 100% as possible! The FSC, or Forest Stewardship Council is an international organization that sets standards for forest products to promote responsible management of the world's forests. Different FSC product labels can certify whether a paper product comes from responsibly managed forest or is made from recycled content. Make sure you learn the labels and keep your eye out for them!

Pens

Consider how many cheap, disposable, pens you have used in your lifetime. Now consider that almost every single one of them has ended up in a landfill. All of these pens can be replaced with a single, durable pen with a refillable ink cartridge. There are lots of pens on the market that can be refilled, including ones that are responsibly made, and made of recycled or compostable materials (ex. bamboo pen). If you do have disposable pens already at home or work, try and reduce their environmental impact as much as possible! Use them all until they are empty, and then dispose of them at an office-supply recycling campaign near you (office supply stores, like Staples often provide these services).

Binders

These days, many filing products like folders and binders are not able to withstand much wear and tear. The frequent replacement of plastic binders leads to a wasteful production and disposal cycle. Instead, try out this 100% recycled chipboard binder that is durable and made of recycled materials. At the end of its life, the binder is compostable, and the metal rings are recyclable. Also consider these recycled tab dividers to complete your organization! Items such as these compostable/recyclable products will help mitigate the impact of your organizational supplies when they are no longer able to be used!

Overall, the take-home message is to consider the full life cycle of any products that you buy. Ask yourself: “how long am I going to be able to use this item?” and “what is going to happen to it when it no longer serves a purpose for me?” Answering these questions will hopefully lead you towards supplies that will last you for years, and end up somewhere other than a landfill at the end of their useful lives. Happy shopping!

Written by: Hannah MacRae