As some of you know, before The Green Mommy was saving the planet, she was a 5th grade teacher. Every August, a few times a week, she’d go to her classroom and work hard to make it into a creative space for her new students. She was “getting greener” every year but just didn’t think of it that way — it was more like “recycling old things into new things” on the cheap! She wishes she knew more about the dangers of PVC plastic back then and how she could have helped to eliminate it from her classroom.
The Center for Health, Environment and & Justice states:
“PVC is unique among plastics because it contains dangerous chemical additives. These harmful chemicals include phthalates, lead, cadmium, and/or organotins, which can be toxic to your child’s health. What’s worse is the danger these chemicals posephthalates and other toxic additives can leach out or evaporate into the air over time posing unnecessary dangers to children. Over 90% of all phthalates are used to soften or plasticize PVC products. Children are at risk from even small exposures to these toxic chemicals. That’s why it’s important to purchase PVC-free school supplies.”
- PVC products are often labeled with the word “vinyl” on the packaging
- To identify PVC packaging, see if it has the number “3” inside it, or the letters “V” or “PVC” underneath it. This means the product is made out of PVC.
The Center for Health, Environments & Justice’s (CHEJ) just put out its 2010 Back to School Guide to PVC-Free School Supplies list. There you can find everything PVC-free from binders, notebooks, pencils cases, and much, much more.
But here are a few PVC-free school items The Green Mommy has always liked:
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- Snack Taxi
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- Skip Hop
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- Klean Kanteen
- Sandwich or snack bags: Snack Taxi, Eco*Ditty, or some Etsy creations here and here.
- Rain gear
- Lunch boxes/bags: Crocodile Creek, Laptop Lunches, L. L. Bean, Skip Hop
- Backpacks: Lands End, Skip Hop, Jansport, Crocodile Creek
- Water bottles: Klean Kanteen, CamelBak, Thermos, Think Sport
The Eco Women are not employed by any of the companies mentioned, nor were they paid to review these products.
Thanks for sharing the CHEJ’s list. I’m forwarding it to all the teachers and moms that I know! My oldest is leaving for college in a few weeks (I expect to be a basket case very shortly) and my youngest is a sophomore. I could rant for hours on the waste I’ve seen in the school supply lists I’ve seen over the years. We got off the back-to-school shopping hamster wheel years ago when I realized 1) they don’t need everything the first day and 2) we probably already have most of it somewhere in the house. For a while, the elementary school lists were getting totally out of control (qt. size ziploc bags and sandwich size bags; red, yellow, blue, orange & purple two-pocket folders with three-hole prongs inside, 8 x 10″ five-subject spiral bound notebook). I kid you not, and I always thought the teachers chose colors without checking what was actually for sale. Of course, the kids would be nervous wrecks if we couldn’t find just what the teacher asked for. Now, throughout our district, they’ve combined the individual teacher lists into one grade-level list and have taken into consideration the excessiveness of some of the requests.
This is fabulous! I love the snack bags!
I just bought a stainless steel Eco lunchbox set for my oldest–my baby will inherit is PVC-free Lands End lunch sack. The younger sons got brand new GreenTime Bags for their sandwiches. We’re all thrilled with ALL of these things! Amazing how much chemicals are in so many products.
Great list! Thanks for taking the time to do the research.