As a new school year approaches

With the school holidays nearing an end I have started getting the boys ready to return to school.

This year we are trialling new rubbish-free lunchboxes.  We had rubbish free lunch boxes last year but I returned them to the manufacturer because the hinges broke after only a few weeks of use - we got new replacements but they too broke.  This year I have found lunchboxes that have no hinges or clips and are dishwasher safe, have no BPA and are easy for the kids to use (especially our preschooler).  Here's hoping that these work better and we will get years of use out of them - the kids love being rubbish free for lunches and snacks at school.

We are also going to trial reusable sandwich and snack wraps this year - to try to eliminate paper lunch bag use all together this year (sometimes I have to put the kids wraps or sandwiches in a paper lunch bag to prevent them falling apart).

Last year I got the boys to choose pencils from our pencil tin at home - we did this for most of the year and we have used most of our old pencils up - it always amazes me how many pencils get sharpened away to nothing in a school year.

This year we have tried to buy pencils and stationary that is either recycled or made from sustainable sources - it is great to see the choice of "eco-stationary" increasing in the shops. 

I have not found any "eco-coloured markers" yet.... does anyone know where I can get some?

Footnote: as requested some further information on where to get the sandwich wraps... I got these ones from here, but you can get them from here and here and here and I am sure many more online shops. Julie at Towards Sustainability also made her own - check them out here.