schools / single use plastics

[NewOrleans]

Specifically, my question is about ziplocks.  Many, many schools have ziplocks in their school supplies list.  I don’t actually know what they use them for (sending art projects home sometimes but the rest I have no idea).  

What ideas do you have to substitute them for something more eco-friendly?

[joenali]

I used to ask for ziplocks for student book bags. Now I use canvas book bags. I haven’t asked for plastic bags in ages. I also use cloth bags that I use for my small groups. In the bags I put an eraser, expo marker and some post its. I can reuse the bags. We can also recycle the markers.

[jackie011]

Former teacher here and we requested Ziplocs. We used them for math game pieces, word cards for spelling, basically any small collection of items. Some suggestions to replace Ziplocs could be various sizes of envelopes or reusable (plastic) containers. I know the teacher accounts I follow on Instagram are all about these little Dollar Tree containers with flippers to hold the lids in place. I’m now in school administration and we go through so much trash, daily, mainly because we do not have the infrastructure we need to sanitize reusable items. We’re working on it, and trying to cut down where we can.

[arehopsveggies]

I’ve been thinking about this, because I’m hoping to go back to teaching in a year or two.

I always kept pieces of activities together in ziplocs. One ziploc could last me years, so not like using it once and throwing it away. But I don’t know what else would keep small pieces together in a file folder as easily. Maybe clasp envelopes. .

[joenali]

I also wish people would cut down on laminating things. You can’t recycle it if it’s laminated.

[Leeham Rimes]

I don’t substitute anything without asking the teacher if it can substituted. (1) bc they have specific intentions for use (class projects, etc) and (2) there is the issue of who does it belong to, the teacher for the school/classroom.

We just had a meeting about this in our school leadership group and the principal was really weary about people donating things with value other than books for the class.

Some teachers may love having a reusable item but I’d ask first.

Eta: I just remembered that Wesley’s kinder teacher had some reusable bags for some center games. In the second month, they were in ziplocks. I asked her what happened bc the bags were so cute (sloths!) and she said the kids ripped hole in them due to overuse/ being too hard on them, playing tug of war with them when the teachers back was turned. I offered to replace them but she declined.

[firedancer10288]

As others said, I use baggies to keep small pieces together. The only substitute I’ve found that works almost as well is envelopes. But they are a lot more expensive and take up more space. I don’t request baggies (we are not allowed to request things for class use, only individual student supplies), so I have to buy that stuff myself and it adds up.

[arehopsveggies]

Jan 18, 2020 11:44:42 GMT -5 joenali said:

I also wish people would cut down on laminating things. You can’t recycle it if it’s laminated.

I’ve been thinking about this too. My area has no recycling, so even paper isn’t getting recycled. Is it better to laminate my activities and use them for years, or use paper activities for a week or two but then they’re trashed.

I used to laminate soooooo much stuff. Trying to rethink.

[VillainV]

Jan 18, 2020 12:00:53 GMT -5 arehopsveggies said:

Jan 18, 2020 11:44:42 GMT -5 joenali said:

I also wish people would cut down on laminating things. You can’t recycle it if it’s laminated.

I’ve been thinking about this too. My area has no recycling, so even paper isn’t getting recycled. Is it better to laminate my activities and use them for years, or use paper activities for a week or two but then they’re trashed.

I used to laminate soooooo much stuff. Trying to rethink.

Could you use plastic sheet protectors? Then you could remove and recycle/reuse/save the paper inside, and re-use the sheet protectors. This only works for letter-sizes paper obviously, but might work for some of your activities.

[joenali]

Jan 18, 2020 12:00:53 GMT -5 arehopsveggies said:

Jan 18, 2020 11:44:42 GMT -5 joenali said:

I also wish people would cut down on laminating things. You can’t recycle it if it’s laminated.

I’ve been thinking about this too. My area has no recycling, so even paper isn’t getting recycled. Is it better to laminate my activities and use them for years, or use paper activities for a week or two but then they’re trashed.

I used to laminate soooooo much stuff. Trying to rethink.

I hear you! When things are laminated they last longer for sure. I found dry erase pockets at target last summer and I’ve been putting my math games in them. I just keep all the games in the pocket and hopefully will still be able to use them next year.

[arehopsveggies]

Jan 18, 2020 12:07:21 GMT -5 joenali said:

Jan 18, 2020 12:00:53 GMT -5 arehopsveggies said:

I’ve been thinking about this too. My area has no recycling, so even paper isn’t getting recycled. Is it better to laminate my activities and use them for years, or use paper activities for a week or two but then they’re trashed.

I used to laminate soooooo much stuff. Trying to rethink.

I hear you! When things are laminated they last longer for sure. I found dry erase pockets at target last summer and I’ve been putting my math games in them. I just keep all the games in the pocket and hopefully will still be able to use them next year.

I’ll put those on my amazon wishlist so I remember about them

[redheadk]

I used baggies in science class for things that were really messy. I actually purchased and kept reusable trays & small cups of various sizes to prep labs/activities in for groups but I had the space to prep and keep things set up like that since I mainly taught 1 subject all day.

A lot of teachers use them to put cards in that need to be separated into sets for use by the kids. There are alternatives (rubber bands, paperclips) but sometimes those have their own immediate downsides (kids shoot rubber bands across the room, destroy the paperclips or steal them, etc) so it is easy to just say forget it and put it in a less-attractive-to-take-or-play-with baggie.

I think the unfortunate reality is that there is no one size fits all answer. Baggies are cheap, easy to store, seal closed, aren't breakable, and are transparent. It's hard to come up with an alternative, especially when we, as a society, expect teachers to fund many classroom needs themselves.

[wildfloweragain]

In my kindergarten class, I use baggies and laminate things.

I use them the most for making games and other practice things. I requested them for my first 3 years at Kindergarten and now find that I have plenty of gallon and sandwich size for the things I am doing. A lot of it was start-up because Kindergarten was a new grade level for me. It doesn't seem wasteful to me at this point, as I reuse the games, reuse the baggies. I try to get as much out of laminating as I can, since I have to buy all the laminating myself. That often means when I print something, sizing it smaller, sometimes a LOT smaller to fit several pages into one, or cutting before laminating to fit more.

This year I asked for 2.5 gallon bags. I use them for costume bags for the class play and for art smock bags for the year. My list each year depends on what we need and I take things off if we have enough left over from the last year. So now I won't have to ask for any type of plastic bags for the next few years. I will have to ask for glue sticks, but haven't asked in 5 years for those.

I did not know laminated paper scraps couldn't be recycled. It's true, I just looked it up.

Rethinking so we are putting less into trash or recycling is going to have to be the way to go either way. Much of what we think we are recycling is not being recycled, especially since China stopped taking our plastics. Not sure how I knew that but didn't know not to recycle laminating scraps.

[Jalapeñomel]

Everything I laminate gets used all year, and cuts down on my photocopying, so I’m ok with using my laminator.

I have replaced ziplocks with empty jars. Kids bring them from home, I put them to good use (baking soda, vinegar, toothpicks, filter paper etc).

I’ve also eliminated paper towels and use rags in my classroom. Students also bring in old towels for me. They are really resistant at the beginning of the year and eventually come around.

If I could cut down on the amount of photocopying for notes, that would be amazing.

[NewOrleans]

Jan 18, 2020 11:49:53 GMT -5 Leeham Rimes said:

I don’t substitute anything without asking the teacher if it can substituted. (1) bc they have specific intentions for use (class projects, etc) and (2) there is the issue of who does it belong to, the teacher for the school/classroom.

We just had a meeting about this in our school leadership group and the principal was really weary about people donating things with value other than books for the class.

Some teachers may love having a reusable item but I’d ask first.

Eta: I just remembered that Wesley’s kinder teacher had some reusable bags for some center games. In the second month, they were in ziplocks. I asked her what happened bc the bags were so cute (sloths!) and she said the kids ripped hole in them due to overuse/ being too hard on them, playing tug of war with them when the teachers back was turned. I offered to replace them but she declined.

Well, no, I wouldn’t just swap out without  consulting. But I want to get them to stop this particular practice.

[NewOrleans]

For context, every year it is on our elementary school— boys this size bags, girls this size bag. In every grade. THat is a lot of bags for even one class. I don’t object to buying tons of school supplies for the class. I don’t begrudge the teachers needing storage stuff, etc. I just want to minimize the plastic bags. ☹️

[pierogigirl]

Jan 18, 2020 13:05:05 GMT -5 Jalapeñomel said:

Everything I laminate gets used all year, and cuts down on my photocopying, so I’m ok with using my laminator.

I have replaced ziplocks with empty jars. Kids bring them from home, I put them to good use (baking soda, vinegar, toothpicks, filter paper etc).

I’ve also eliminated paper towels and use rags in my classroom. Students also bring in old towels for me. They are really resistant at the beginning of the year and eventually come around.

If I could cut down on the amount of photocopying for notes, that would be amazing.

Our school sends home an electronic newsletter every other Thursday.  Many of the notices from PTO and the district are sent electronically.  We have paper copies for those that need them, but it has cut down a lot on paper notices.  We also only send one paper notice per family (the youngest in family in the school gets the notice.  I have a group email and I use it to send updates to families.  

I still make too many copies, but I have started to scan and put some things in my electronic classroom to cut down. I can't, and don't want to have my kids do all their reading on a device.

[katfco]

It is a lot of bags that we go through, but when you have 20-30 kids, and kids might have little cards for their vocabulary words or individual words for reading, word work, math, science, or social studies at different points through the year, finding a quick and easy way to store them is hard.

[redheadk]

Jan 18, 2020 14:01:14 GMT -5 NewOrleans said:

For context, every year it is on our elementary school— boys this size bags, girls this size bag. In every grade. THat is a lot of bags for even one class. I don’t object to buying tons of school supplies for the class. I don’t begrudge the teachers needing storage stuff, etc. I just want to minimize the plastic bags. ☹️

I think your best option is to tell the teacher your goal (reduce use of plastic bags) and ask if there is something she wishes she had reusable bags for that you can purchase/make. Every teacher and classroom has different needs.