Summer is rapidly drawing to a close, and that means it’s time for back-to-school shopping. But before you frantically stock up on new school supplies, take a moment to think about how you can green your child’s schooling. Purchasing recycled and used supplies, rethinking how you pack lunches, and redesigning your children’s morning commutes can have substantial cumulative effects on your family’s carbon footprint. CAP has the story.
Paper will probably be one of the first items on most back-to-school shopping lists, and it’s usually one of the biggest sources of preventable waste in school supplies. Schools throw out an average of 38 tons of paper every year. That’s 8 million sheets per school””enough to save 646 trees if recycled.
Find out if your children’s school has a paper recycling program in place. You can join the school’s Parent Teacher Association to get more involved in sustainability programs. And make sure you send your children to school with recycled paper made from at least 20 percent postconsumer fiber, which uses no chlorine.
Next, your kids are going to need some pens and pencils to write on all that paper. Don’t fall into the trap of buying a huge number of disposable pens. Americans toss out 1.6 billion pens every year, contributing massive amounts of environmentally harmful and nonrenewable materials to landfills. To cut down on this needless waste buy refillable pens instead. And when it comes to pencils, explore recycled options. Some companies use unexpected materials, such as denim and rolled-up newsprint, to make their recycled pencils.
Textbooks will be one of the most expensive things you’ll need to purchase. Buying used books is one way to spare the earth and your bank account at the same time. Renting textbooks is another cost-effective and eco-conscious option.
Now that your child has all those pens, pencils, reams of paper, and textbooks, how are they going to lug them around? Before going out to buy a brand new backpack, consider a few more sustainable options. Buying used is always a good idea, as with textbooks. Or you could purchase a backpack made from recycled material.
Your kids’ school lunches are another thing you’ll need to start thinking about as summer dwindles. It’s estimated that on average, schoolchildren generate 67 pounds of waste every year thanks to the plastic baggies, brown bags, and other waste used to pack lunches. Eco-conscious lunch boxes can help solve this problem, especially if they come with reusable containers and thermoses. You can also pack a washable cloth napkin, which can help make sure that your children’s lunches are entirely waste free.
This is also a great time to rethink how your kids get to school. If you drive your kids to school everyday consider setting up a carpool system with other families that have kids in the same school as yours. If the bus stops near your home, sending your kids to school on the bus would help cut down on carbon emissions.
And then there are the simpler solutions. Fewer than one-third of the kids who live less than a mile away from their school walk to school. If you live reasonably close to your child’s school consider letting them walk or bike. You can even set up “walkpools” with other schoolchildren and parents in your neighborhood.
Back-to-school shopping can easily devolve into a wasteful, overconsumption spree. But parents in the know limit their purchases to the bare necessities, and make sure they purchase eco-conscious options for the few items their children actually need. Though kids the world over may dread heading back to school, it’s an educational opportunity in itself. You can start teaching them how to be green before the first day of school even begins.
This article is a cross-post from the Center for American Progress.
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I hate to say this, but I wish this kind of devastating heat wave that Moscow is suffering were occurring in D.C. and/or in the coal belt states. D.C. has had record-breaking temperatures this year but it hasn’t been enough for the MSM to even suggest GW could be a contributing factor. And here’s a CNN article on the break-up of yet another ice sheet in Greenland which you should critique, Joe: http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/08/07/greenland.ice.island/index.html?eref=rss_topstories&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_topstories+%28RSS%3A+Top+Stories%29
Notice how at the end they write “environmentalists say that ice melting is being caused by global warming.” Yes, they do (at least many do) but so do the vast majority of climate scientists, the experts on the topic! It’s as if CNN doesn’t want to acknowledge the scientific basis behind global warming for fear of anti-science flak coming their way. This is all quite depressing, but we have no choice but to press on and try to educate the public of the catastrophes both under way, in the making, and those likely to happen if emissions continue unchecked — all in the face of media irresponsibility.
Oops, I meant that comment for the post on Moscow’s heat wave — apologies.
Don’t send your kids to school. These are brainwashing institutions to make sure your kid gets sucked psychologically into the ‘you only have worth if you consume and produce as much as possible’-mantra that is essential in keeping the economic concept of infinite growth the core of our culture.
Teach your kids to read and write so they can become autodidact, and then only teach them how to grow and cook food and some other essential stuff. We don’t need any more lawyers or economists or sales representatives. We need independent people that know what real sustainability is about.
However well-meant, this article is greenwash. The question is not: What are the green shopping choices? They do not exist. Too much is still too much.
Look at all the packaging that goes to the garbage dump. What a waste.
Just think about what you are buying. That is all the average consumer needs to start doing. What is it packaged in? Where did it come from? Where will it end up?
Kids love new stuff, it’s true. So buying school supplies feels a lot like a loving thing to do for them.
Try to strike a balance and start a conversation with your kids about consuming and waste and re-use. It is their planet, too. Teach them what that means.