Managing waste wisely

How to reduce waste when going back to school

It’s almost time to head back to the classroom. Have a more sustainable start to the school year with these tips to reduce waste when sorting stationery and school supplies.

Shop what you have

The most environmentally-friendly school supplies are the ones you already have. Instead of ticking all the boxes on the school booklist order, start by ‘shopping’ what you have at home. What can you reuse from last year? Do you have mostly-empty exercise books that can be used again with a few pages removed? With a quick clean, a lot of stationery items like vinyl pencil cases and plastic rulers will come up as good as new.

Buy secondhand

Op shops are a treasure trove of good quality (and cheap) stationery items, backpacks, pencil cases, lunch boxes and more. Start there before heading to a stationery supply store.

Choose better materials

For items you do need to buy new, prioritise recyclable and recycled materials, and avoid plastic.

  • Look for exercise books that use recycled paper and have cardboard covers (instead of plastic)
  • Swap plastic sharpeners and rulers for wooden alternatives
  • How about switching to pencil highlighers instead of the classic plastic versions?
  • Cover textbooks and scrapbooks in recyclable brown paper instead of plastic contact

Donate your unwanted school supplies

Excess items can be taken to the West Metro Recycling Centre for donation to GiveWrite, a local charity that helps teachers with supplies for their classrooms and provides essential stationery to disadvantaged kids. Items must be clean and new or lightly-used (no lever arch files please).


For teachers

Find sustainable school ideas here, or get your students thinking about waste with a WMRC School Waste Education Day incursion! (Available to schools in our member council areas only.)