Shopping for school? Be ‘green’ and frugal

Earth-friendly school supplies might sound expensive, but you can be gentle with the planet and respectful of your wallet.

Using what you already have is environmentally friendly and frugal. Look for pens, pencils and unused journals picked up at a convention, binders that are no longer in use, and unused or lightly used supplies from last year.

For backpacks, Mary Hunt, founder of the website Cheapskate Monthly, recommends Jansport or Eastpak for durability. If you are shopping resale, those are labels to look for because they’ll last longer. And Jansport backpacks have a lifetime warranty.

Many stores now carry office-supply lines that are earth-friendly. Several companies offer pens made from recycled plastic. Pencils can be made from recycled newspaper, but they’re more expensive than wooden pencils. A mechanical, refillable pencil might be the more economical green choice.

Notebooks and looseleaf paper made from recycled paper can be fairly pricey. A set of four college-ruled “decomposition books” at Target costs more than $25.

Derek B. Davis, a spokesman for Earth.com, thinks the item likely to have the biggest impact on the planet is a reusable water bottle — hardly a budget breaker. Reusable packaging for lunches and snacks also saves you money.

One reusable bottle, over a nine-month school year, could keep 117 single-use bottles out of circulation. Tap water is vastly cheaper than bottled and eliminates plastic waste and the carbon emissions needed to distribute bottled water for sale.

There are also reusable — and dishwasher-safe — containers or bags for sandwiches and snacks.

For back-to-school clothes, consider resale stores. You save money and extend the life of the clothes, keeping them out of landfills. You can shop online with Thredup and similar sites.