Hey, Green Junkie!

It’s that time of year again, where we are all preparing for another school year which means our top priority is back to school shopping.

Between clothes, backpacks, lunch boxes and your basic supplies – we are creating a ton of waste every single year with our shopping habits.

So today, I wanted to share with you some useful tips to create less waste and also save yourself some money when it comes to your back to school shopping. Cause who doesn’t need a little more money in their pocket right now.

You won’t want to miss this episode where we discuss,

• How much waste is produced with school supplies every year
• How to create a system for re-using school supplies
• Eco – friendly alternatives to traditional school supplies
• What to do with old supplies you will no longer need or use
• How to approach the school year with the planet in mind

You’ll discover that and so much more in this episode.

If you love this podcast be sure to leave a review and share a screenshot of this episode to your IG stories. Tag @thisisstephaniemoram so I can shout you out and publicly say thanks. 

Thanks for listening and being here.

Your green bestie,

Xoxo Stephanie

Previous Episodes Mentioned:

#27. Solving The Daily Lunch Woes – One Box At A Time With Courtney Stewart

#21. 8 Ways To Create A Low-Waste Lunch

#19. 23 Ways to Reduce Plastic

#9. Eco-Organizing: Reusing What You Already Have

#2. 5 Simple Ways to Reduce Your Waste

Snag 1 on 1 Sustainability Consulting with Stephanie

Follow me on Instagram

Follow me on TikTok

Join me on LinkedIn

Produced by: Alecia Harris

Music By: Liz Fohle

LISTEN BELOW

TRANSCRIPT FOR EPISODE 50

0:07
Hey, Green Junkie. I'm your host, Stephanie moram and today I'm going to be focusing on back to school. Yes, it is that time of the year again, our kids are heading back to school. So how can we make it a little more green?

0:20
In 2019 families who have had students in grades one through 12 spent an average of $696.70, on back to school supplies. On top of that, a large percentage of the supplies that we are buying are ending up in landfills year after year. How do we stop this cycle of overspending and polluting, while still ensuring that our children have exactly what they need to attend class? This is what we're going to discuss on this podcast today.

0:55
If you love learning new ways you can reduce your impact on the environment, please subscribe to the Green Junkie Podcast on your favorite platform you listen on. That way, you'll never miss another clean living. So let's dive in on how you can save some money. And also be gentle on the environment at the same time when it's back to school.

1:20
So my number one tip is plan to reuse. When you buy supplies, ask yourself if you can reuse them next year, or hand them down to someone else. You can by neutral colors, binders made with stronger materials, markers and pencils that can be refilled and pencil cases and backpacks that can be washed and reused over and over again. What I do is at the end of the school year, I go through all my kids school supplies, and I separate them stuff that can be reused over and over again. And then stuff that has maybe fallen apart that can no longer be used. Most of the tim, folders and binders and notebooks, markers and erasers are still in good condition. And you can reuse them the following year. Whatever can't be reused, I take them. And you know paper, I'll put it in the recycling.

2:18
If it's markers and they no longer work anymore, Staples offers recycling of pens and markers. There's a great nonprofit called the crayon initiative and they'll take back your old crayons. And what they do is they recreate new, larger crayons that they donate to children's hospitals. So it's kind of a when when you no longer want your crayons, and another child will be able to get their hands on some crayons. And the thing is, most of the time when it comes to notebooks, the school asks for like five or six or more. And most of the time you don't even use the full notebook, you might only use a couple of pages. So I just cut off the pages that were used. And then I reuse those notebooks the following year. I don't, I want to save money. And I also want to be gentle on the environment. So if they're only using a couple of pages in a notebook, it doesn't make sense for me to just drop it in recycling. So that's a great way that you can save a little bit of money is just keep reusing those notebooks, because I find when it comes to loose leaf paper, often the school is like, hey, I need like five packages of loose leaf paper. And they actually don't even use that many. Again, I put that in the pile that I'm going to reuse the following year.

3:34
When it comes to reusing school supplies, if there's some school supplies, your kids you know, have outgrown those school supplies can no longer use them. You know, sometimes you get stuff in kindergarten, grade one, two, and three and then as they get into like four or five, six and older, they don't need those school supplies anymore. So you can actually donate your school supplies to some nonprofits to thrift shops and that way other kids that maybe can't afford school supplies or people like me that like to reuse and thrift school supplies can get their hands on school supplies and they don't have to buy new then so I have my two piles. I have the ones that I'm going to reuse next year and the other pile so I either donate school supplies that we can't use. I recycle school supplies that have fallen apart, or I will donate to like nonprofits, some school supplies to be recycled, or I recycle different school supplies like you know, I mentioned the pens and the markers and stuff like that.

4:36
Now, when it comes to lunches right. So the best thing to do when it comes to lunches is to get something made of stainless steel, something super neutral that you can reuse over and over again. My kids have the same planet box that they've used since kindergarten. I swear they're going to be using it when they were in high school. It was like $100 lunchbox, but my daughter is going to grade six it'll be seven years that she is using the exact same lunchbox, there is no reason to get rid of it, it works just fine.

5:10
I'd love for you to actually listen to episode number 27 is called Solving the Daily Lunch Woes with Courtney Stewart. She's actually the owner of the Good Kiind, which is a stainless steel lunchbox company. And she talks about, you know, different ways to pack lunches and also have eco friendly lunches. And I also did a solo episode number 21, 8 Ways to Create a Low Waste Lunch. So that could give you some ideas on what you can do when it comes to your lunches.

5:38
Let's talk about backpacks. Most of the time are no our kids backpacks are still in good condition. You know, obviously, in kindergarten to maybe grade 6/7 and eighth, we need bigger backpacks. But for a couple of years, you can keep using the same backpack, my daughter has been using the same one probably for like three or four years, she kind of wants a new one. If we do end up getting a new backpack, the one that we have is still in good condition and either we'll keep it or we'll donate it and someone else can use it at that point. I just feel like when it comes to school supplies, there's just so many ways that you can save money. And also, I've mentioned this about four times already how you can be gentle on the planet. So why spend money on school supplies when you've had them from last year.

6:25
Often the school tells you the I feels like 100 pencils, our kids don't go through 100 pencils. I'm totally exaggerating but you know, they get asked for X amount of pencils, and they never used them all up and we will just keep using them over and over again because saving money is key to me when it comes to school supplies. Because like I mentioned, there's no reason to keep buying new over and over again, when you have a pile like I have, at the end of the school year with school supplies that work great are still in good condition and can still, you know be used for at least one more year. My kids have notebooks that they've had since like grade one or two, only because they've only used a couple of pages in that notebook. And I'm not going to go in and buy a new one. It's just a waste of paper, a waste of energy and really a waste of money.

7:15
My second tip is thrifting. If you have been a listener of my podcast at the very beginning, you have probably heard me talk about thrifting over and over again. thrifting is my jam. I love it because you save money and you're bringing life to life back to a product that maybe somebody else didn't want to use anymore. So many people think of thrifting they think of clothing and houseware and stuff like that, but you couldn't find school supplies like notebooks, paper, pencils, binders, so many things at second hand stores. You can look on Facebook marketplace, you can look at local Buy Nothing groups, eBay, you will find school supplies that people no longer need because their kids have outgrown it or for whatever reason they don't want them anymore. So I have found so many things like folders and notebooks and binders instead of buying them new. All the binders we have our secondhand from a local thrift shop. Great condition. I mean they're stainless steel. The outside is plastic. I don't love plastic, but the binder itself is still functioning there is zero reason that we should have to go we should go and buy a brand new binder. And if you have school supplies that you don't want, I mentioned at the very beginning of the episode, you can donate them go through your supplies when you're kind of auditing your school supplies at the end of the year of what's good, what needs to be recycled, have that pile of like donations. You know, maybe your daughter has outgrown My Little Pony or whatever it is that was on her binder in kindergarten or grade one, that's fine. We don't have to live eco perfection you can get a new one. So donate that one to you know a kid that will appreciate the My Little Pony or whatever it is on that binder and get her maybe a secondhand one somewhere that she will appreciate that might be more her age and something that she wants to bring to school because some of the stuff that you know my kids used in kindergarten like they're not using anymore. I can't think off the head what that is but a lot of the writing notebooks you know where there's like it's when where they're learning how to write when their basics are not using those kinds of notebooks anymore. So I have a bunch and when I no longer need them for my son. I'm just going to donate them there is going to be somebody out there that is going to want to use these school supplies.

9:42
And I mentioned it I'm going to mention again Facebook marketplace if you are not on Facebook marketplace, buying stuff like buying not even school supplies you need to be there it is a gold mined for secondhand I you know totally off topic of. We were at with my kids. Yeah, we were at like a local coffee shop and they have tons of board games and we were playing Connect for. And they love that game, we've played it a million times, we don't actually own it. I feel like we really want to get connected for we'll play it. And my first instinct was, let's go to Facebook marketplace and see if we can find it somewhere. And I found it went to pick it up at someone's house paid like 10 bucks for it. And now we have Kinect for. And so just Facebook Marketplace is a goldmine. And you will probably find like tones of school supplies on Facebook marketplace.

10:35
And finally, if you know you've gone through your school supplies, you can't find them thrifting and you do need to buy new, because let's be honest, when your kids start kindergarten, you're pretty much starting from scratch. And when they go off to high school or middle school, you might be starting from scratch a little bit as well only because what kids needs are in different grades, changes, right. So a couple of companies that I love, I will definitely mention, I will also put it in the show notes. So you don't need to take notes right now. But when you do need to buy new look for those eco friendly companies look for the non toxic, you know, glue, look for the pencils that are made from recycled newspaper, buy products that will last instead of opting for the less expensive plastic school supply. Maybe spend a little bit more if you can, and your budget allows it to look for the stainless steel that you can reuse over and over again. Look for wooden rulers instead of the plastic ones they will last longer. If you're buying new binders can you get paper binders we have found super sturdy paper cardboard binders that work great. And the fun thing is your kids can color it, they can put stickers on it, they can draw on them and kind of make them their own. When it comes to pencil crayons look for like the non toxic pencil crayons look for look for products that are made of recycled materials. And look for as much plastic free as possible. Again, it is not always possible to live without plastic. But there are always options out there.

12:16
So a couple of companies that I do love that I am going to mention right now. And then you can check out the show notes. So Young, they have backpacks and lunch boxes that are super cute. And they're more I would say made for the younger kids. They do have some other options. But I use these backpacks when my kids were super little. When it comes to stainless steel lunchboxes you have two options, the Good Kiind is which is a Canadian company and then you have PlanetBox the difference between the two is that the good kind actually has silicone in their lunchbox so it kind of feels a little bit better than just the stainless steel. Then if you're looking for dry erase markers, whiteboard erase markers, there's a company called Aus Pen, and the pens are refillable which is super cool. So when you run out of any ink, you have a little cartridge and you fill up your ink so you don't have to keep buying over and over again. These dry erase markers.

13:22
Smart Tree, they make pencils made from recycled newspaper. If you're looking for a large array of school supplies, Onyx and Green has tons of school supplies that are molecule friendlies are made from recycled materials. There's Faber Castel, which is a European company, but they do have a Canadian branch and a US branch. They have great pencil crayons made from recycled materials. If you're looking for tape, have you ever thought of getting craft paper tape, there is a website called life without plastic. So if you are the type of person that is looking to live without plastic, check out the website Life Without Plastic. They're actually based in Quebec in Canada, but they ship to the United States. So you can find stuff outside of school supplies you can find also, you know stainless steel lunch containers and those kinds of things, but they do sell craft paper tape, which is a great option if you don't want to buy them traditional plastic tape. And when it comes to water bottles, let's try to get stainless steel, it's more durable. They are a little bit more expensive. But for me, I like the durability of stainless steel. And I like drinking my water and stainless steel over plastic any day.

14:45
So there you have it, my friends, different ways that you can reduce your impact on the environment when it comes to school supplies. Reuse what you already have thrift and buy second hand and third buy knew if you absolutely need to.

15:02
For more green living and non toxic inspiration, you can listen to episode number 27, which I already mentioned solving the daily lunch woes with guest Courtney Stewart, Episode 21 eight ways to create a low waste lunch, Episode 1923 ways to reduce your plastic episode nine eco organizing reducing what you already reusing what you already have. And episode number two, five simple ways to reduce your waste. Please share this episode or my whole podcast with friends with your friends, your co workers, your mom, your dad, your uncle, your cousins, personally don't even think of that you think would benefit from eco friendly living and also how they can save money and be gentle on the planet when it comes to school supplies. Stay connected with me on Instagram and Tiktok @thisisstephaniemoram. And don't forget to subscribe to the Green Junkie Podcast on your favorite platform. Thank you for listening, and we'll see you next Tuesday Green Junkie.