Q: Half my school supplies seem to be made of plastic. Should I be worried?
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A: Poll a classroom of students and two-thirds of them have probably spent some time chewing on erasers. I can still remember the taste and smell of my old cookie-shaped eraser. Sigh.
Of course, I had no clue I was actually sucking on toxic vanilla-scented vinyl.
Dodgy plastics litter the back-to- school supply market, but you’ve got to know how to differentiate the bad from the ugly. In the case of erasers, if it’s the classic pink kind it’s probably made of safer synthetic rubber, but if it’s white it’s often – but not always – nasty PVC.
Just to confuse things, you can also find natural rubber erasers made of the sap of rubber trees in white, but it should say so plainly on the eraser.
Vinyl or PVC, in case you haven’t been schooled, is that grade-failing plastic responsible for nasty carcinogenic emissions during its manufacture and eventual incineration. It gets sent to detention again and again, since it’s frequently stabilized with IQ-lowering lead and softened with hormone-disrupting, liver-damaging phthalates.
Yes, six phthalates are soon to be banned from kids’ toys in Canada, but are they being removed from school supplies? Only for kids under four, since they’re more likely to suck on them longer.
Despite the growing enviro and consumer backlash against PVC, you’ll still find swarms of vinyl notebooks, binders, pencil cases, school bags, lunch containers and squishy pens and pencils made of the stuff. It’s hard to tell what’s vinyl and what isn’t, so unless a binder tells you it’s specifically made from something else, like, say, relatively benign polypropylene plastic, steer clear.
Keep in mind that while polypropylene is non-toxic to the end user, it’s still toxic to the planet, since it’s made of virgin petroleum deleteriously extracted from the bowels of the earth. Of course, just because something is made of plastic doesn’t mean it’s virgin petroleum. Grand & Toy carries three-ring binders made with 79 per cent recycled material, including 10 per cent post-consumer waste, 39 per cent recycled material and 30 per cent corn plastic.
All right, so corn plastic isn’t without enviro and social ramifications: it’s very likely genetically modified (in 2007, 84 per cent of Canadian corn was GMO), and many argue that using food crops for bio-plastics and biofuels only feeds global food crises.
To avoid the murky bio-fiasco, look for supplies made with high recycled content, be it recycled “poly,” recycled cardboard or recycled tires. (On second thought, some nasty chemicals and heavy metals have been found off-gassing from recycled-tire turf used in playgrounds and athletic fields.) And by the way, you might want to refrain from chewing clear plastic pens and pencils, since some are made with polycarbonate plastic. That’s the kind made with estrogen-mimicking bisphenol-A (BPA). BIC says its pens are polycarbonate-free.
All the big-name office supply chains and pharmacies should have green school supplies, though if you really want to get sustainable, support local businesses that offer nothing but eco-friendly options (places like Ecoexistence and Grassroots).
And since back-to-school shopping isn’t limited to pens and binders, make sure the water bottles you buy are BPA-free and that you’re avoiding vinyl in general. Consumer Reports just found high lead levels in vinyl raincoats and umbrellas, and off-the-charts lead in a cutesy cellphone charm sold at Claire’s.
Disturbing but true: if companies know their products contain over-the-moon lead levels, the current system doesn’t make them tell the feds or consumers. At this point, the government has pathetically limited power to force toxic products off shelves, though that’ll change if the proposed Consumer Product Safety Act (reintroduced in June) finally passes.
Email your MP about supporting the bill (without watering it down). It won’t protect students from all toxins in school supplies in the future, but at least it’ll give us power to expel some.
Got a question?
Send your green queries to ecoholic@nowtoronto.com
