Finding eco-friendly school supplies can be easy if you know where to look

 Thank you to the Ultimate Green Store for the great info and sponsoring this post!

I love love love when shopping for green products is easy. We all know that trying to be an eco-conscious shopper isn’t always the easiest thing to do, especially with mainstream stores still falling way behind in giving consumers what they want — better choices. 

Back-to-school shopping is no different. It used to be as easy as letting kids choose a lunch box with his or her favorite character and grabbing a notebook or two. So much information has come out over the past few years about lunch boxes and other school supplies containing lead, phthalates, Bisphenol A and other chemicals that are believed to be carcinogens and/or hormone disrupters that shopping is no longer a process of checking things off the list—it’s about checking things on the label. It’s also about being waste-conscious.

Finding a great store that takes the guesswork out of choosing environmentally friendly and health friendly products is a big deal! When I found the Ultimate Green Store, I was thrilled at the vast selection of products they carry. 

Eco-friendly lunches

As a mother of two school-age children, I focus on how products are made and in packing lunches in a manner that produces less waste. The Stainless Steel Three in One Bento Lunch Box, a school lunch kit inspired by the Japanese bento box, is one of my favorites. It features a 2-layer stainless steel bento box with upstairs inner box. The bottom layer is 1″ deep and fits a whole sandwich on sliced bread. The top layer is 1 1/2″ deep and fits cut fruit, dry snacks, pasta or salad.

The containers are reusable, recyclable and dishwasher safe, free of any materials that are suspected carcinogens or hormone disrupters, and make it easy for families to use less disposable packaging. 

Eco-friendly beverage containers

When shopping for food and beverage containers, it’s extremely important to watch out for products made with clear, shatter-resistant #7 plastic. Previous-generation, Nalgene-type water bottles and baby bottles were the first to get a bad rap for containing Bisphenol A, but now it’s being found in everything from food packaging to the inner lining of metal food and drink cans. BPA can mimic estrogen and acts as a hormone disrupter.

Its effects are often most pronounced when humans are in stages of rapid development, such as in the womb or during childhood—which is all the more reason to check the product for its plastic number.

More parents are turning to stainless steel water bottles for their kids, such as the ones made by Klean Kanteen, which are made from 100 percent recyclable high-quality food-grade stainless steel. They are lightweight, durable, non-leaching and come in lots of kid-friendly colors. They even have polypropylene tops with sippy adapters for your little ones.

Eco-friendly School Supplies

More green products are hitting the market all the time, and finding eco-friendly back-to-school supplies is now easier than ever. When looking for pencils, pens, paper and binders, think outside the box—or rather the tree. “Tree-free” mango, banana, coffee and lemon paper (made from recycled agricultural waste) is used to make notebooks, stationery and even reams of paper.

You can also find pencils made from recycled newspaper; biodegradable crayons made from soybeans; paper and binders made from recycled post-consumer content; and pencil cases, backpacks and binders made from recycled drink pouches (kids flip over recycled Capri Sun and Kool-Aid Jammers lunch boxes, backpacks and pencil case holders).

Stocking up on eco-friendly school supplies doesn’t have to be difficult, and with The Ultimate Green Store you can find everything you need right in one place!

So tell us….

Have you started purchasing school supplies yet?