Eco Friendly School Supply Choices with Wisdom Supply Co.

Wisdom Supply Co. is a Bay Area based business with all the zero-waste supplies you need. From School Supplies to Planners find all plastic-free products designed to be reused, repaired, or authentically recycled. I had the pleasure to speak to one of the founders, Heather Itzla.

Can you tell me about Wisdom Supply Co.?

We are the planet's only zero-waste school supply company. We don't play the greenwash game and design like earth, natural resources, and the future matter. We make 5-star rated, zero-waste products, are B-Corp Certified and women owned.

If you could choose 3 school supplies to replace on the usual shopping list, what would that be?

The 3 products we could choose to replace on a back to school shopping list, prioritizes eliminating vinyl, and sources of microplastics (like painted pencils) due to their impact on the environment and human health.

1. Unpainted Incense Cedar Pencils
2. Unlacquered Incense Cedar Colored Pencils
3. Vinyl-Free Repairable/Recoverable 3-Ring Binder

My daughter loved the binder kit you sent. Tell me more about the 3-Ring Binder Kits.

These are truly the only zero-waste 3-ring binders. We sell them as a DIY kit, it’s easy to put together and excellent quality. Our customers love these. Here are a few customer testimonials:

“My teenage daughters were heading back to school and I just couldn’t bring myself to buy them each a new binder that would end up in a landfill. I will definitely purchase again and recommend to all of my friends!”

— Brooke G.

“We refuse to buy plastic but it’s so hard to find alternatives. We were thrilled to find Wisdom’s binders. My high schooler loved assembling them & they work great. We are ordering more of *everything*. Feels so good to have quality supplies that don’t force us to compromise.”

— G.L. Jenkins

“We cannot speak highly enough about the quality, simplicity and beauty of each product. The company has great education on sustainability and now my kiddos are questioning the need of painted pencils. The Binders were easy to put together and offers the opportunity for one to be creative and personalize it.”

— Brittany S.

What inspired you to get into this business?

As a parent frustrated with the annual back-to-school prescription of cheap, disposable plastic supplies, I saw an opportunity to provide a "waste-less" solution for my son's school. I crowdfunded and stocked each classroom with plastic-free school supplies. 

“The Microplastic Crisis Is Getting Exponentially Worse Plastic production is skyrocketing, pushing microplastic pollution to dangerous new levels”

— Matt Simon, Wired

“The Plastic in Paint Is Massively Polluting the Ocean A just-released study paints a dire picture.”

— Jeremy Miller, Sierra Club

“PVC plastic, commonly referred to as vinyl, is a very hazardous product, dangerous to human health and the environment throughout its entire life cycle.”

— Children's Environmental Health Network

Why the name Wisdom?

We are named after a most remarkable bird, Wisdom the albatross; the oldest wild bird ever recorded, and a species most visibly and tragically impacted by plastic pollution.

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About the Founders + Waste Fanatics

Our grave concern (obsession) over plastic pollution brought us together in 2016 at numerous plastic pollution events.

After many years of clean-ups/data collection/public education, we came to understand the scale of the problem: the amount produced annually outweighs all of humanity, it's now documented in the air we breathe, the soil where we grow our food, rain, the water we drink, and it's in our bloodstreams, tissues, breast milk, and even in our brains. Plastic is found at the top of Mount Everest and at the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

The most meaningful way to address the issue is to prevent plastic from being made.

We turned what began as an activist/volunteer effort, into Wisdom Supply Co., a certified B-Corp on a mission to reduce plastic waste at an exponential scale.

Heather + Nikki