Believe it or not, an average American family with school aged children spends about $500 on supplies for the school season. Because these supplies are a necessity, we wind up buying disposable supplies like pens and glue sticks that will do the job. But these supplies are often thrown away before their time. In fact, six billion pens are thrown away in the United States every year.

Paper is another school supply that is wasted quite often. The average school throws away almost 40 tons of paper every school year. About 650 trees are cut down each year just for paper, which is why purchasing recycled paper and then recycling it after using it is important. Think about it, for every 220,000 sheets of paper that is recycled, 17 trees are saved. So remember, don’t be afraid to follow your path of green and learn behaviors that can last the entire school season and beyond.