Pencil cases, folders among the items available locally

By Sarah Kloepping
skloepping@greenbaypressgazette.com

Moms and dads can buy eco-friendly school supplies for their kids, but they'll have to pay a little more for them.

Representatives of Shopko, which is carrying eco-friendly school supplies for the first time, said they hope to supply more "green" options as consumer demand grows.

"We recognize that a consumer is more frequently now looking for options that are Earth-friendly," said Stephanie Juarie, electronics division vice president.

TerraCycle makes the eco-friendly school supplies, which include pencil cases and folders made from used drink pouches and binders made of 100 percent recycled cardboard and 90 percent recycled metal rings.

Dan Quintero of TerraCycle said the company "upcycles," meaning trash is simply cleaned and reused.

"The reality of it is, the economy can make you decide whether you're going to spend that extra dollar to save the Earth, and we're trying to make that so it's less to think about," Quintero said.

Brianna Campbell of Green Bay has four kids, and two of them are starting kindergarten in the fall.

"I'm going as cheap as I can with school supplies," Campbell said. "I probably wouldn't buy the (eco-friendly stuff) because I wouldn't want to spend the extra money."

Abby Rauscher, a student at University of Wisconsin-Stout, said even though prices for eco-friendly supplies are more expensive, she would still consider buying them.

"I kind of get into that whole environment thing," she said. "If it's going to save me money in the long run, then I wouldn't mind buying them if they're a little more expensive."

Jeff Poppele, senior buyer of office and school supplies for Shopko, said the items only hit shelves a couple weeks ago, so feedback from consumers isn't known yet.

"It's fairly new in our department, so the initial read on it is a little premature for us to draw any conclusions. But we heard from some of the stores that they thought it was a really cool concept," he said.

Other stores carrying TerraCycle merchandise include Target, Wal-Mart and OfficeMax.