You know it’s really back to school when the kids start bringing home the fundraiser packets. Time to try to get relatives to buy overpriced stuff in the name of helping our schools.

This school is selling Sally Foster stuff. Wrapping paper, all the usual stuff. And cookie dough, which I will admit to a weakness for. The banner and book talk about offering green items, so I decided to take a look.

It’s hard to tell just exactly how green some offerings are. There’s gift wrap printed on recycled, recyclable and biodegradable paper. Not bad, but kind of meh.

The reusable shopping bags are much better. I can’t tell what they’re made of, but still it’s a good, green idea.

Of course, the prizes the kids get for selling are still pretty horrible, but it’s hard to keep them from getting excited about prizes.

The problem with school fundraisers isn’t just whether or not they offer recycled paper or anything environmentally friendly at all. The big problem is that we deal with them every year, sometimes more than once. That part’s a bit of a pain. It’s really hard to ignore the pressure to sell, as the kids are so excited about it all.

I don’t know that there are any easy green solutions for the problem either. There are affordable, environmentally friendly things you can buy, but soon enough you don’t need more of them, at least not unless they’re really practical things like cleansers.

I’m glad even so to see that even a semblance of environmental awareness is creeping into school fundraising. It’s not much, but it is something.