Back to School Reusing
One of the first questions that Ella and I came up with when we were first discussing embarking on Project Plastic, was "What do we do when we need supplies for school?". Obviously this journey shouldn't interfere with our studies, but so many binders and sets of notebook paper are wrapped in unnecessary plastic. I would hate to start Project Plastic by immediately putting notebook plastic wrap into my collection box.
This posts marks my commitment to skip the shopping excursions to the bookstore, and to go through the whole 2012-2013 academic year without buying any new school supplies.
Making this commitment is a big change for me. I am the kind of person that loves school supply shopping. I have always opted for buying all new notebooks for every class I take. I love that feeling of ripping about the package of a new notebook and throwing a sharpie label on them. At the end of classes I usually keep my binders in pristine condition and shelf them forever to be momentos.
My wasteful, consumerist ways are being reformed today though! I started by cleaning out my very disorganized closet. I emptied old binders from high school, and from my first year of college and filed all my notes away in paper folders. I now have a full bin full of binders ready to be reused. I found I had plenty of leftover paper as well.
In terms of notebooks, I have received a lot of great notebooks as gifts from my loving sister over the years. I have been neglectful about using them in the past though since I usually tempted by a nice new notebook in the store, and I end up re-buying notebooks I already have. I have decided to not let myself by any new notebooks until I have filled every page of all the books I already have.
Pens are going to be the trickiest since they are in constant need of replacing and there is usually a lot of plastic wrapped around just a few pens. I am going to avoid buying pens by collecting free pens from my school to use. As a big university George Mason gives out free pens at every big function, and these pens are shipped to campus organizations in bulk, meaning there is decreased plastic footprint for using them. By not spending money on pens it also ensures that my purchasing power is not being used to support the plastics industry and the American Chemistry Council.
Dorm supplies are the final back to school temptation I am working to overcome. I was in desperate need of a organization crate system last year as you can see...
I had planned on buying some new crates, but instead I found my old art crates in my closet. I am so happy to be solving my clutter problem while also cutting down on potential plastic pollution.
This posts marks my commitment to skip the shopping excursions to the bookstore, and to go through the whole 2012-2013 academic year without buying any new school supplies.
Making this commitment is a big change for me. I am the kind of person that loves school supply shopping. I have always opted for buying all new notebooks for every class I take. I love that feeling of ripping about the package of a new notebook and throwing a sharpie label on them. At the end of classes I usually keep my binders in pristine condition and shelf them forever to be momentos.
My wasteful, consumerist ways are being reformed today though! I started by cleaning out my very disorganized closet. I emptied old binders from high school, and from my first year of college and filed all my notes away in paper folders. I now have a full bin full of binders ready to be reused. I found I had plenty of leftover paper as well.
In terms of notebooks, I have received a lot of great notebooks as gifts from my loving sister over the years. I have been neglectful about using them in the past though since I usually tempted by a nice new notebook in the store, and I end up re-buying notebooks I already have. I have decided to not let myself by any new notebooks until I have filled every page of all the books I already have.
Pens are going to be the trickiest since they are in constant need of replacing and there is usually a lot of plastic wrapped around just a few pens. I am going to avoid buying pens by collecting free pens from my school to use. As a big university George Mason gives out free pens at every big function, and these pens are shipped to campus organizations in bulk, meaning there is decreased plastic footprint for using them. By not spending money on pens it also ensures that my purchasing power is not being used to support the plastics industry and the American Chemistry Council.
Dorm supplies are the final back to school temptation I am working to overcome. I was in desperate need of a organization crate system last year as you can see...
The most environmentally friendly supplies are always the supplies we already own. All this prep work may not seem like a lot, but by going through this process I have been reminded that a lot of shopping can be avoided if we thoughtfully reexamine the things we already have. That gives me hope.
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