Paper with Angel!
There is a great variety of recycling paper and recycling cardboard for kindergarten and schools. The "Blue Angel" guarantees best paper quality and highest environment and health protection.
You can perfectly write on the paper of the most well-known eco-label worldwide - and you also save the climate!
If you are more into detail, you can find a sustainability calculator under http://www.papiernetz.de/ to find out how many resources and CO2 can be saved if you use recycling paper.
When you buy kitchen rolls, paper tissues and toilet paper, the "Blue Angel" or another label assuring 100% recycling paper should be found on the wrapping. Because: who wants toilet paper from tropical rain forests?! (Please see Climate Voyage, Station Southeast Asia: Palm-oil and toilette paper from rain forest)
Glue together!
Glue sticks and liquid glues are available with harmless solvents and eco-friendly packaging.
For the environment, we should buy refillable products that are reasonable in kindergarten and school classes. Please note: The more package content, the less waste!
It is fun to make glues by yourselves: From potatoes or with a few spoons of flour you can easily make starch glue (see Homespun Glue)
Good Woods?
In contrast to felt pen, crayons and pencils can not dry out and also cause less waste. Cheap pens are often of bad quality and can also harm your health.
Unpainted wood pens, e.g. of cedar wood, do not contain resolvents or preservatives.
The FSC® sign guarantees that the wood comes from sustainable farmed forests.
Healthy Painting and Tinking!*
Felt-tip pens are mainly made out of plastic and contain only a little ink (about 2 grams). If you do not want to go without those pens you should make sure that the colours are water-based. The plastic barrel should be chlorine-free and unplasticized.
Even wax crayons and coating paint may contain harmful substances, therefore they should be made out of renewable resources and there should be the possibility to buy only the colour that is used up. The packaging should be made out of paper and not plastic.
When you buy brushes in Eco-Quality, the stick is made of unpainted wood with FSC®-seal and the bristles are made of natural material.
(You can find many ideas and hints for making your own paints, pens and brushes under "Selfmade Alternatives)
Writing without fear and blame!*
Fountain pen for school and pens for learning writing are available out of eco-friendly plastics or renewable ressources. Especially the fountain pens with ink cartridges produce a lot of waste. The alternative are converter modells that can be refilled very easily and eco-friendly.
Ink erasers live up to their name: They contain many harmful substances, produce plastic waste and are often very expensive. Mistakes can be crossed out instead.
There are refillable models of felt-tip pens available. It is especially important that they do not contain harmful dyestuff.
Ballpoint pens are often non-refillable products. You produce less waste if you decide to buy ballpoint pens with a greater reservoir.The barrel could be -as you prefere- made of metall, wood or cardboard.
Drawing and Deleting!
Only a good sharpener makes an accurate pencil point. The best material for a sharpener is metall and the box made out of polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP) or cardboard.
You can use rulers made of wood, cardboard or bioplastics.
Rubber should be made out of natural rubber and produced without use of PVC or softener.