What is it about school supplies?

There’s something about them – the brand new box of crayons, the fine-ruled spiral notebooks, the colorful folders – that I just love.

Even as an adult, I'm still so enchanted with school supplies that I easily lose myself in office supply chain stores, wondering if I'd ever use a hole punch or colored tape.

The truth is, I hardly even need a pen anymore, since I do pretty much everything via computer. Reminding myself about that is the way I manage to get out of the store without buying a lot supplies I’ll never use.

About this time of year, kindergartners, college freshmen, and even adults taking classes are stocking up on school supplies. And a couple eco-friendly websites, such as Live Science [1] and the World Wildlife Fund [2], want to remind them to scale back. They've come up with some pointers on how to make your backpack as green as possible.

Here are a few tips that make sense, along with a couple of ideas that seemed questionable to me:

• Look for the FSC label on pencils and paper. It stands for Forest Stewardship Council [3], which means that the products come from eco-friendly companies

• If possible, reuse pens, pencils, crayons, and folders from last year. True, it’s not as much fun, but it’s the right thing to do.

• Look for supplies—folders, notebooks, staples—made from recycled materials.

• WWF [4] suggests that people purchase school supplies online. It saves the gas spent driving to stores. Given the transportation costs and extra packaging, I’m not sure if that’s the greenest way to go.

• Pay attention to the product packaging, and try to buy as little of it as possible.

• Live Science [5] suggests brown bagging it using unbleached, recycled paper bags, as opposed to a lunchbox. To me, however, a reusable lunchbox seems like the greener option. (Also, remember to use local produce and reuseable water bottles [5] when packing a lunch.)
  

• Buy a laptop from a company that’s thinking green. One way to tell is whether the laptop has an ENERGY STAR sticker [5] or not. Remember to turn it off when it’s not in use.

• Consider getting a solar-powered backpack [5] to charge your laptop and electronics.