Back To School Eco Tips

Back To School Eco Tips
Oh dear it’s that time again when shop windows are emblazoned with the slogan ‘Back to school’ It doesn’t seem like 5 minutes since the little darlings were breaking up

1.Walk to school According to the Walktoschool website ‘Driving an average journey to school (2.4km to primary school) produces enough CO2 to fill 70 UEFA footballs. Walking is great excersise and means children arrive at school awake and alert. All schools are required to have travel plans by the year 2010 (2009 in London) which set out ways to encourage children to travel to school by sustainable modes. Contact your child’s school or your local authority for more details.

2. Packed Lunches Think about reusable packaging for packed lunches. Clingfilm and paper towels can’t be recyled so it’s better to put sandwiches in washable plastic tubs. Fruit juice and squash cartons are also difficult to recycle so using reusable plastic bottles or flasks for their drinks is much less wasteful. Check out Ecoboodle for eco friendly lunch boxes.

3. Stationery and books Choose recycled paper items and refillable pens and pencils where you can. Children can also make their own little notebooks from the backs of old envelopes and left over pages from exercise books. Try to source text books second hand either from local charity shops Green Metropolis or your local freecycle network.

4.Buy Less Last but not least think about the items you will be purchasing, does your child really need that brand new sparkly school bag or that extra set of shiny exercise books or glitter pens. More tips and info can be found here

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