Zero Waste Back to School

It's the end of the summer holidays and the beginning of the new school year. School supplies have been appearing in stores for at least a month. Not just plastic-coated notebooks, but also various types of colored pencils, markers, colored highlighters, pastels, paints, rulers, drawing pads, and, of course, backpacks, bags, etc. Our children dream of a completely new school bag and pencil case, different from the one they had last school year. Every year, along with the school supplies, we bring home a sea of ​​plastic and foil packaging. For the sake of the environment and our wallets, it's worth considering a zero-waste baby kit .

Zero Waste School Equipment

Before we plunge into the whirlwind of shopping frenzy, it's worth checking what's hidden in the corners, drawers, and cupboards of our child's desk. It may turn out that there are so many pens, pencils, erasers, crayons, and sharpeners in it that there's no need to buy new ones. When it comes to a backpack, you don't have to buy a new one every year. Therefore, it's best to choose a universal model that will appeal to both ten- and fourteen-year-olds, and replace it if it's damaged beyond repair. We'll go shopping when we check what we're missing and try to choose eco-friendly items when buying new things, for example:

• all kinds of bags for shoes or PE outfit can be chosen from cotton instead of polyester,
• Instead of packing a drink in a plastic bottle in your backpack every day, let your child prepare water in a bottle or tea in a thermos,
• Reusable breakfast boxes or wax pads are a better choice than, for example, ready-made croissants packed in plastic bags.
• all kinds of highlighters, markers and pens are available in eco version, ie made from recycled materials, from corn starch, cork or paper, and rulers and sharpeners, made from wood or metal,
• Instead of rubber bands made of latex or PVC, i.e. plastic, it is better to choose the natural ones that are labelled “latex-free”,
• Eco-friendly pencil cases can be made from natural cork, wood, linen or metal.

Rules for completing a Zero Waste school kit

To summarize in a simple way all the steps of preparing a child for the new school year in the spirit of Zero Waste , we should remember some of the most important rules, namely:

• we check what I already have at home - crayons, pens, notebooks, backpack, bag, etc.,
• everything you can buy second-hand (from friends, in groups on the Internet),
• When we have to buy new products, we look for them in an ecological version , let them be made of natural materials or materials that can be recycled.

These few ideas will help us reduce plastic consumption as much as possible , lowering costs and extending the lifespan of some school supplies when we reuse them. First of all, let's not be fooled by the ubiquitous advertising and promotions, thanks to which manufacturers tell us that our children need all these new things. Let's avoid buying truly unnecessary material, following the basic principle of zero waste. Let's think about whether it's really necessary to buy a new backpack and pencil case every year, especially if the previous one isn't damaged? When we go shopping, let's try to limit plastic by choosing items made from natural materials.