Back To School Supplies For The Eco Minded: Sustainable School Supply List
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With school starting just around the corner we wanted to take a moment to help provide some sustainable alternatives to traditional back to school items. The items we will list in this post are meant to get the ball rolling for you and to provide alternatives that are more eco-friendly than what may be traditionally bought.
Of course if you have school supplies left over from years prior be sure to do your best to reuse what you already have and shop second hand when you can. When buying new always consider more sustainable options that include less plastic, recycled materials, and upcycled materials.
Whether you have very young kiddos or older kids heading off to college, school supplies are always needed. To help make your back to school shopping a little easier and gentler for the planet, here are some of our recommendations.
Our sustainable school supply list includes:
Backpacks
Lunchboxes
Notebooks
Folders
Sticky Notes
Pens
Pencils
Sneakers
Clothing
Backpacks
Terra Thread is an eco-friendly company that uses sustainably grown Certified Organic Cotton for their backpacks. Their packs are also made in Fair Trade Certified factories. With every purchase, Terra Thread gives a portion of their proceeds to Feeding America.
Their Semi Mini Backpack is perfect for young elementary school aged kiddos and their Earth Backpack is perfect for older kids.
Lunchboxes
When selecting a lunchbox of any kind, always try your best to buy something that is likely to last a long time. The less you have to keep buying, the better off the planet and your wallet will be.
There are two lunch boxes we recommend checking out. The first is a stainless steel bento box from Ecozoi. This plastic free box comes in zero waste packaging and because it is stainless steel is likely to last a long time. One thing to be careful with is while it claims to be leak proof these can still leak.
If you are packing up a lunch that is liquidy it is likely going to be better to put whatever may leak into a stasher bag or something with a better seal to stop any potential leaks. For the majority of lunches, like sandwiches, pastas, crackers, fruits, and veggies you will not have a problem.
The other lunch box we like is from Spoondrift. Their silicone bento boxes come in a variety of soft toned colors. Silicone is a better option for the planet than plastic, as overtime plastic containers and lunch boxes will break down into micro plastics where as silicone isn’t plastic and in turn will not shed microplastics.
Notebooks
There are both wide ruled and college ruled notebooks out there, with wide rule working best for younger kids and college rule working best for older kids. We have two different types of notebooks in both the wide and college ruled section.
For college ruled notebooks we really love Decomposition’s College Ruled Spiral Notebooks that are made from 100% post-consumer waste recycled pages. Decomposition also makes non-spiral notebooks too so if you prefer not having the wire binding be sure to check out their regular composition notebooks too. Both versions come in a variety of cover styles and colors.
If you are looking for a more traditional look and feel to a college ruled notebook Five Star makes eco-friendly spiral notebooks. These notebooks are made from 100% recycled plastic for their covers, 100% recycled paper pages, and 98% recycled wire bindings.
For wide ruled notebooks there is the classic one subject notebook on Amazon made with 100% recycled paper. These I have found tend to be a bit pricey so personally I would look to see if they go on sale or have coupons.
Then there are wide ruled notebooks only available on Decompostion’s website that come in unbelievably cute prints from frogs to pandas to space. Like the college ruled version, these notebooks are made from 100% post-consumer waste recycled pages.
Folders
Five Star 2 Pocket Folders make for a more sustainable choice due to being made from 100% recycled plastic. These folders can also fit into a three ring binder if you like.
Sticky Notes
A more eco-friendly alternative to traditional sticky notes would be purchasing post-it sticky notes that are made from 100% recycled paper.
Pens
A unique pen company we like is Pilot that makes their B2P pens from 89% recycled water bottles. These pens come in a variety of ink colors and are refillable, making it a more sustainable option to traditional pens.
If you want a more traditional looking pen that is still a more eco-friendly option BIC’s ecolutions pens are made from 97% recycled plastic (minus the ink cartridge) and 100% of their packaging is recycled and recyclable.
Pencils
Ticonderoga Renew Wood Pencils are a more eco-friendly option to traditional wood pencils. These #2s are made from 53% recycled wood scraps.
Sneakers
AllBirds is a shoe company that has both sneakers from younger kids as well as sneakers and shoes for older kids. As a company they are focused on cutting their carbon footprint in half by the end of 2025 and to near zero by 2030. They are also committed to regenerative agriculture, renewable materials, and responsible energy use.
Clothing
TenTree has been carbon neutral certified since 2020 and at the end of 2022 the company had planted over 90 million trees with a commitment to plant 1 billion trees by 2030. In 2022 sustainable fibers made up 99% of the materials used by TenTree. And as the name may suggest, every purchase helps plant more trees on our planet.
From shirts to pants to sweatshirts, TenTree has a wide range of sustainable clothign items for you and your kiddos.
Another sustainable clothing company we like is The Good Tee. The Good Tee has children, as well as adult, clothing basics. This female founded company launched in 2020 and is a certified B corp that only uses certified fair trade cotton for their products.
These back to school supplies are perfect for the eco minded who want to make a more sustainable choice when buying school supplies. There are likely more sustainable options out there and currently being developed and we encourage you to share other sustainable options in our comments for everyone to learn about!
