Green office products that aren't in bulk?

December 12, 2007 8:36 AM

Easiest and greenest way to put together a gift kit of green home office supplies?

My sister-in-law has recently become interested in living green and at the same time is starting down a slightly different career path. I'd like to give her a kit of office supplies with a green theme for Christmas (my brother assures me this is something she'd love). I'm thinking a few pens, folders, a notebook or two, a planner and maybe tape or a stapler. I've even seen a USB drive that was promoted as green, which was pretty cool. For the sake of the theme, I'd like it if it looked recycled or the packaging promoted the fact that it was green.

Unfortunately, I'm having a hard time finding these things locally. Research online has led me to some cool products but shipping time is a concern and lots of online office supply stores assume you're buying in bulk. I want just enough to get an individual started with a budget of about 35 dollars for a nice kit (probably excluding the planner) or 50 dollars for a spectacular kit. I also want to do this the greenest and most efficient way possible and not have to have things shipped from several different stores.

I've become enamored with these products:
-Staple-less stapler
-Pilot's BeGreen Pens
-Recycled notepads, binders, folders and CD holders like these

What is the best way to find and put together these items? Are there any cool items I don't know about? I'd like to shop locally, of course, but I'm in small town South Dakota and the only options we have are big box stores, Office Max and Staples.

I found and loved Frog File but they only ship to Canada. Other online green office stores seem to be bulk goods only or don't have products that "scream" green.

I know this is an awkward and difficult question, so any help at all would be appreciated.

posted by bristolcat to work & money (3 comments total)

You want to approach this the greenest way? Don't buy new. Might be hard for office supplies though, and you've probably considered that...

A staple-less stapler would be awesome, and so would pens made from recycled materials. A USB drive that's promoted as green? Not so much. I fear that presenting someone with supplies that are sustainable in style but not in substance would be sending the wrong message.

I do have one suggestion- do you have a lot of scrap paper around? Get them trimmed down to the same size and spread a thin layer of white glue at the top for a cheap and extra, extra, extra green notepad. Make many of these. And get a nice pen, one that can be refilled and not be lost easily.
posted by agenais at 9:17 AM on December 12, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

go to staples. you can get recycled copier paper, recycled paper notepads, they even have recycled pencils. the staple-less stapler idea is bad-ass and i've considered them for myself, but i think you can only staple a few pages. still awesome as part of a gift though.

if you get her a planner get a refillable one, meaning the cover stays the same, but she can get new calendar pages every year (and i'm sure they make those recycled too!).

i dunno, i guess not a lot that you hadn't already thought of, but i'm just letting you know that any staples worth their salt will have almost all of that.
posted by misanthropicsarah at 11:43 AM on December 12, 2007

Just chiming in to say I love my staple-less stapler.
posted by sugarfish at 3:07 PM on December 12, 2007