How parents are erasing stationery waste

For a small enterprise, Project Stationery racked up some big numbers in its first few months: nearly 8000 exercise books, more than 21,000 textas and erasers, more than 22,000 coloured pencils, 614 sharpeners, 570 pairs of scissors, 1500 glue sticks and much more.

The repackaged supplies were gratefully received by kindergartens, childcare centres, primary schools, community houses, not-for-profits and charitable organisations, which is nice, says Trompf, but for her, sustainability is the main game.

“We’re passing this on to people who can actually use it,” she said.

“But our main thing, our main interest, is waste minimisation, and this year, which is different to last year when trying to work with schools to change systems.

“We’re trying to put it back on schools to make systemic changes.”

Efforts are underway to get buy-in from the state government, but significant changes can be made around the kitchen table at back-to-school time, too.

“We get a lot of exercise books that are brand-new, but they’ve all got names on them,” Trompf said.

“So a simple thing like not naming books before they get used, that makes a world of difference to being able to re-home them or reuse them within the school. Little things like that, they really add up.”

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