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!
5. New Leaf Back to School Bundle – $39.99
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.
4. Design Ideas Recycled Newspaper Pencils – $2.95 for Pack of 12
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.
3. TerraCycle Drink Pouch Homework Folder
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.
2. NoonSolar Solar-Powered Bookbags – $330-$497
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.
1. Dell Studio Hybrid Desktop -$499
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.