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With the beginning of September comes back to school! Students, parents, and teachers are preparing for the return in more ways than one. Did you know there are recyclable school supplies that your kids can use daily? Try these 7 eco-friendly school supplies for a waste-free and sustainable school year:
- Binders
- Pencils
- Pens
- Markers
- Notebooks
- Crayons
- Glue sticks
The various ways to go about recycling school supplies:
1. Curb Side Pick-Up
Various items can be placed into your blue recycling bin for a biweekly pick-up. For example, notebooks qualify as long as you remove the metal spiral.
2. Donate Unused School Supplies to Charity
There are many shelters, under-funded schools, and non-profit organizations willing to accept donations. Supplies can be expensive if the funding isn’t available and recycling these items for those in need is very much appreciated.
3. Research Local Programs
There are various programs available across Canada to make your recycling experience as seamless as possible. Some 
examples include:
- Office Depot has a program called, My School Recycles which offers schools incentives for recycling small electronics, ink and toner cartridges.
- Crayola has a program called, ColorCycle which recycles used markers into fuel.
- You may also send supplies to TerraCycle, which recycles fluorescent lamps, coffee capsules, cigarette butts, and other hard-to-recycle trash.
- Send your drained batteries to Call2Recycle.
- Used backpacks can be recycled by World Wear Project.
- Dead pens to The Pen Guy.
- Crayons can be recycled by Crazy Crayons.
- Earth911 and RecyclingCenters.org will locate recycling centers in your area.
Be sure to purchase recyclable, eco-friendly or compostable school supplies whenever possible. Every little bit helps.
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Looking for more environmental tips? Check out these other blogs:
- How To Motivate Elementary, High School, and University Students To Recycle
- 5 Step Checklist To Start A Successful School Recycling Program
- 6 Steps To Start An Organic Compost Program At Your School
CleanRiver Recycling provides a variety of innovative, flexible and customizable recycling solutions. To determine the right solution to meet your needs, use the CleanRiver product selector.
If you have additional questions that weren’t answered in this blog post please call us at 1-866-479-4038 or email solutions@cleanriver.com.
