Eco-conscious Back to School Shopping
Do you dread the long, expensive list of supplies that comes with the start of every school year? Or do you enjoy browsing colorful notebooks and pencil cases with your kids, putting together the perfect kit to help them get excited for what’s ahead? Going green can reduce dollar and carbon costs while still providing a fun shopping experience: everyone wins.
The first rule of a more sustainable lifestyle is always to reduce consumption. For greener back to school shopping, in Beverly or anywhere, start by assessing your home inventory and pruning your shopping list. For instance, if you have a drawer full of pencils and pens, resist the urge to buy new ones. Also try not to buy in bulk. For many families, that leads to over-buying and ultimately to more material entering the waste stream. And think creatively: collages of old magazines on a paper bag gives you waste-free, highly personalized, no-cost book covers.
For what you must buy new, thrift stores are the most environmentally-friendly choice (Savers in Danvers has an especially good range of supplies like notebooks and pencil cases). Otherwise, look for products made with recycled content or which are themselves recyclable, and that feature reduced- or zero-plastic content such as refillable ballpoint pens or paper vs. PVC folders.
Photo courtesy of Unpacked Living
Local small business Unpacked Living on Cabot Street has a special Back to School collection featuring useful, affordable items like compostable lunch bags and plastic-free pencil sharpeners. Elsewhere, look for perfect-bound (flat-edge) notebooks because spiral-bound end up in landfills, and for non-laminated covers. Wisdom Supply is a good online source for no-waste stationery products for your eco-conscious back to school needs.
As far as delivery methods go, walking or biking to a local store carries the lowest carbon cost. But ordering online isn’t necessarily worse than driving to a big store. As a 2020 study showed, “the number of items purchased and the last-mile travel distance” are the biggest factors in determining the greenhouse gas cost of any retail channel. So consolidate your orders! A brick and mortar store that fulfills your order from their local warehouse is the greenest online delivery option.
For growing kids, it’s a lot easier to reuse last year’s school supplies than clothes, and new clothes carry a hefty carbon price tag. A single pair of jeans is estimated to take nearly a thousand gallons of water to produce and deliver to the shelf. The fashion industry as a whole is responsible for 10 percent of global carbon emissions and contributes heavily to microplastics pollution – nearly 50 billion plastic water bottles’ worth end up in our oceans each year – and yet 87 percent of fiber in the industry ends up as waste (via WorldBank.org).
But thrift and consignment stores make great economic as well as environmental sense, and Beverly has lots around. Thrifting reduces textile waste, helps keep our oceans cleaner, and reduces water usage and carbon emissions.
Beverly Bootstraps Thrift Store, Beverly
Worthy Girl, Beverly (teen girls and women consignment)
The Golden Hanger, Beverly
Savers, Danvers
Goodwill, Danvers
Children’s Drop and Swap Consignment Event, Danvers, Oct. 13-17 2021
Lifebridge Thrift, Salem
Two Little Monkeys, Somerville (children’s consignment)
Online: ThredUp, Poshmark, Depop
