Green Back to School Time: What’s the Most Eco-friendly Pencil?
One benefit of my children attending a one room school house is we don’t get the ubiquitous back to school list of school supplies. There’s no place to shop for these supplies in our little town of 200, and most families could not afford the extensive list common to suburban schools. No matter where they live, one thing all children need for school is pencils, but what is the most eco-friendly option for these graphite writing utensils?
Pencils are made from wood, and although it is hard to imagine forests are clearcut for the little bit of wood in a pencil, they are. Many pencil manufacturers buy their wood from Sierra Pacific Industries, which is notorious for irresponsible logging practices, such as clearcutting and use of herbicides on plantations. Forturnately, Forest Ethics has rated pencil manufacturers on the amount of pre- and post-consumer recycled content in their products, whether they are made Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified lumber, and whether the lumber is purchased from Sierra Pacific Industries. According to Josh Buswell-Charkow of Forest Ethics:
Parents don’t want their children using pencils which degrade California’s landscape, drinking water, or species, and the top companies on our report card show that there’s a better way. Those big companies that earned ‘F’s, however, are like the students in the back of the class with pencils in their ears and their heads in the clouds while the rest of the class leaves them behind.
I have just discovered 
