North Goes Green

Archive for the ‘School Supplies’ Category

We are awaiting to hear who we will have as teachers here at the Gillies house! We can’t wait to receive our post-cards! Once we know and are done with our postcards- don’t forget to recycle them!

Gearing up for school can be daunting but for us we are pretty much all set. Lunchboxes – we are re-using the ones we had last year. Ours washed up nice and are ready for lunch! Stainless steel water bottles are being re-used as well. Backpacks- are going into their 1st, 2nd, and 4th year of use (incoming K, incoming 1st grader and incoming 3rd grader in the house).

School clothes are a mix of hand-me downs (thank you friends- and older brother) and a few new pieces so they feel excited about “new” school clothes. Pencils we have collected at various birthday parties are all sharpened up for homework and crayons are collected from what we have and everyone has their batch of colors.

Snack planning has commenced as well as what to pack for lunch for my picky youngest child. We have tupperware reusable sandwich containers which is great to save from using ziploc bags. Natural Wax paper bags are a great resource for sending in snacks and worrying a little less about the trash that results. I also send in reusable plastic silverware for the kids and may opt to send in cloth napkins as well ( I just need to find little ones).

Be sure to recycle as much as you can for this coming school year. If you have multiple kids you can sometimes repurpose one child’s backpack for the other child is you jazz it up. Glitter glue, and a glue gun can make a huge transformation or invest in a high quality backpack in K that is NOT a toddler sized one and it will last until 5th grade. It may seem like a lot to invest $30 or more for a backpack now but far better than $15/year for one that will easily rip and be replaced year after year.

Please volunteer to help North Go Green and we look forward to meeting all the new families at Back to School Night on 9/27!!!

- Thank you,

Allie Gillies

President, North Elementary PTO and GREEN lady @ North

There are easy ways to “Green” your school supplies. Buying products made of post-consumer waste recycled material is one way to do so. Check out this great site where you can purchase any school supply you will need! The Ultimate Green Store

Here you will find sugar-cane notebooks, scissors made with recycled plastic and more! Check it out! You can also find great “Eco-friendly” options close by as well. Staples sells some recycled items right here in Somerset. Ask a salesperson to direct you and be sure to check if the product has post-consumer waste materials. That is the best option for recycled material.

Don’t forget to Re-Use school supplies from last year. Decorate an old vinyl binder with stickers or duct tape to make it unique. Don’t throw away old notebooks- tear out the paper and recycle it! Use an old back-pack or pass it down to a sibling or pass it on to someone who can use it. Don’t just throw away items that you don’t want anymore- help others and make a “donate” bin and pass it on. There is nothing wrong with sending in 5 partially used glue sticks rather than buying 2 new ones. Go through your “junk drawer.” If it’s anything like mine you’ll find scissors, brand new pencils, scrap paper, tape and more!