Green tips for heading back to school

As the August calendar quickly dwindles away, my mind is shifting gears from thoughts of sunblock and swimsuits to school lunches and supplies.

Like most of you (I assume), I’m always on a quest to make my family’s routine greener. Here are some tips for inching kids closer to sustainability as they head back to school. Please share your own suggestions in the comments below.

1. Have them ride the bus, walk or ride bicycles to school.

2. Pack their lunches in reusable containers instead of brown sacks and plastic sandwich baggies.

Want to make your own reusables? Here are some tutorials:
My sandwich bag instructions on Penny Carnival
Green-craft guru Betz White’s tutorial
Instructions for reusable wraps from Instructables

Or buy your reusables online. Here are some sources:
Waste Not Saks
Lunchskins

And here’s a site that sells all kinds of reusables .

3. Avoid packing single-serving items in lunches. For example, instead of buying individual plastic cups of applesauce, purchase a large container and pour some into Tupperware-type containers as needed. Better yet, make your own applesauce from scratch using organic apples ( Cole’s Orchard at Green Bluff is the only organic orchard I know of in our area. Anyone else know another?)

4.Instead of buying a closet full of new clothes, purchase some secondhand or have a clothes-swapping party with other families.

5. Take a look at the school supplies you can carry over from last year before buying everything new. Kids often fall into that trap of feeling like they have to have a new backpack, binder or lunchbox every year. Teach them that what’s cool—and smart—these days is to reduce waste by using what you already own.

6. When you do buy school supplies, opt for items made from recycled materials or long-lasting products that don’t need to be replaced within a few months. Check out this slideshow of green school supplies from Treehugger. But be careful not to fall into the trap of buying something just because of its eco marketing. It takes resources to make and transport all products, no matter how green they are.

7. Stay organized. I don’t know about you, but it’s when I’m frazzled that I make my most un-earth-friendly decisions, like going through a drive-through restaurant for breakfast or making several trips in my car. Have your kids set out what they’re going to wear and fill their backpacks at night. Bake a few dozen healthy breakfast cookies and put them in the freezer for grab-and-go meals in the morning.

Check out these links for more green back-to-school tips and stores that sell eco-friendly school supplies.

Project Green Dorm

Green Back-to-School Guide from The Healthy Voyager (with links to several green products)

More green school supplies , this time from Care2.com