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10 stouffville suntribune saturday sept 1 2007 staff photosteve somerville malik maaytahmoreira and sydney rosenberg are starting grade 1 with litterfree lunches using reuseable plastic containers have a green school year haven t shopped for the kids yet let our guide save you money and help the planet by serena willoughby staff writer second only to christmas back to school time is one of the most consumer crazed times of year so if you havent done it yet how do you make sure your children are equipped for the school year while teaching them look after the envi ronment here are some handy tips 1 less is more before you go clothes shopping go through your old ones and figure out what can be salvaged handed down or sent to a clothing dona tion box perhaps youll discover some thing youd forgotten you can drop unwanted clothes offat value village 130 davis dr newmarket 9059531344 mon- sat 9 am to 9 pm sun 10 am to 6 pm value village 10620 yonge st richmond hill 9057377444 monsat 9 am to 9 pm sun 10 am to 6 pm richmond hill salvation army thrift store 10620 yonge st richmond hill 9057377164 newmarket salvation army thrift store 130 davis dr newmarket 9058301656 markham salvation army thrift store 9293 hwy 48 n north of 16th ave nue markham 9054726506 2 litterfree lunches instead of buying plastic sand wich bags and brown paper bags to transport your lunch purchase reusable plastic containers said mother and member of the york region environmental alliance tell them if we use less paper youre saving a tree york region environmental alliance member sari merson sari merson as long as youre careful about not putting them in the dishwash er they will last a long time she said ms merson ran a litterless lunch program at her childrens school in markham while children are often more attracted to individually portioned snacks in shiny packaging ms merson recommends experiment ing with different kinds of snacks to figure out what children like and instead of buying pre packaged snacks try buying in bulk and putting them into your own containers it will save you moneytoo 3 hightech backpacks the hottest new item this season is the eclipse solar gear backpack or laptop carrier the bags use the same 12v auto motive charging adapter you use to charge your cellphone or other small electronics by plugging into a cars lighter the backpack features an inte grated solar panel that provides up to 25 watts of power to charge your cellphone pda or ipod interest is growing in the prod uct especially for people who are on the go canadian distributor laura griffin said adding there is a lot of interest in the green back-lo- school movement the laptop bag sells for 200 and the backpack for 150 and they can be ordered online at wwwbackup- powerca another option is simply repair ing and reusing the backpack you have or visiting an army surplus store to get a vintage backpack 4 school supplies ms merson recommends rip ping the unused paper out of old notebooks and recovering them to form new notebooks while she admits it can be chal lenging to convince children they dont need allnew school supplies connecting the efforts to environ- mentalism may help tell them if we use less paper youre saving a tree ms merson said i do think kids nowadays are more mindful of the environment if you do need to buy loose leaf paper or notebooks she recom mends looking for products with recycled content if you cant find it ask the store manager and request that they carry it because it is a trend if you ask at the store it will encourage them ms merson said y0 rk reg ions 1 st l i t e r a r y f e s t i v a l sat sep 29 sharon temple sponsored by a corn your commun ity