The summer feels like it keeps getting shorter, and even though the thermometer is still registering hot days, kids in some states head back to school as early as August 1.
With a start date that soon, it’s easy for the first day to creep up on you. Suddenly, you’re rushing around to get ready, doing whatever it takes to make sure you and your kiddo are prepared for this important day.
As you make your plans and collect your supplies, don’t forget to pick sustainable back-to-school options. Heading back can be eco-friendly, and here’s how.
Gather school supplies
An average kid’s school supply list can be almost a page long. That’s a lot of stuff to pull together. To minimize what you have to buy, start with taking stock of supplies left over from last year.
If folders are still in decent shape, reuse them. If last year’s backpack will still work with your child’s style, don’t buy a new one (same with that reusable lunchbox and water bottle.) Even complete sets of markers, crayons, or colored pencils may make it another year.
For the supplies, you will need to buy, look for products that use minimal packaging. Those that are made from recycled materials are also more eco-friendly.
The goal of sustainable school supply gathering should be to minimize waste, whether you’re talking about trash or buying items you already have. You don’t want to toss a perfectly good notebook simply because your child wrote on one page already.
Do some back-to-school clothes shopping
Kids consignment shops and high-end resale sites make it easy to shop pre-owned clothing when pulling together your child’s back-to-school wardrobe. It may even allow you to buy nicer clothes than what you’d normally be able to afford new.
Since kids quickly outgrow their own clothing, most items are hardly worn before they go out for resale. You can get a great deal, wow your kid with their ‘new’ school wardrobe, and promote sustainable shopping habits.
Pick a mode of transportation
Driving your child to school, when it’s just you and them in the car, is one of the least environmentally-friendly ways to get them to school. If possible, set up a carpooling system with other families in the neighborhood. If your school provides bus transportation, even better. If you happen to live close enough where your child can walk or bike to school when the weather allows, you’ve hit the sustainability jackpot.
If you do have to drive your child in on their own, you can make the wait in the carpool line more efficient by turning off your car when at a stop. Not letting your car idle in line can reduce the amount of harmful CO2 emissions your vehicle releases into the air.
Go greener as you get ready
It can be a mad dash toward the first-day-of-school finish line, but before that tardy bell rings, make sure you’ve taken what steps you can to get a little greener when it comes to school. From how you prepare for the first day to the products you buy throughout the school year, you can make a difference.
Pack a plastic-free lunch
Buying school lunches definitely makes it easier on you as a parent when it comes to getting your child out the door every morning, but school lunches produce an excessive amount of waste.
Even if you can’t make their lunch at home every day, consider swapping out the lunch line for a lunchbox once or twice a week. Use a reusable lunchbox over a paper bag, pack a reusable water bottle instead of a disposable juice box, and swap out plastic baggies for reusable food pouches. You can even ditch the plastic silverware by buying a reusable set just for school.
When it comes to all those delicious snacks you want to put into your child’s lunch, buy in bulk for less packaging. Then, portion out the perfect snack size into one of those pouches and pack everything up.
Create a sustainable lunch with IMPACT COLLECTIVE
What you buy can also make for a greener lunch. Working with a variety of companies, IMPACT COLLECTIVE helps brands who are already thinking responsibly about the environment, put plans into action. When you see products with the IMPACT seal on their packaging, you know they’re taking steps to reduce their waste in a variety of areas.
Putting these types of products into your child’s lunch means you’re shopping responsibly in addition to crafting a more sustainable lunch. For example:
- incrEDIBLE eats makes edible cutlery to use in lieu of plastic
- Talty Bar has a protein bar that’s made using carbon and plastic neutral practices
- Happy Campers bakes organic, gluten-free bread and reclaims the plastic they use in packaging by pulling waste out of our oceans
To get to know these brands, and see who else IMPACT works with, check out the entire IMPACT community.