Your daughter's room has a fresh coat of low-VOC paint, and your son is the house expert on what's recyclable. Don't let your little ones' eco-outlook fade with the last days of summer. The annual ritual of back-to-school shopping is near, and keeping the environment in mind on your excursion is easier than ever.

Backpacks
If you weren't able to wait in line to pick up an Anya Hindmarch bag for your stylish student, there are still plenty of eco-friendly schoolbag options. Look for bags made from sustainable or recycled materials. Nylon is an easy-to-find, nontoxic material available at many retailers and from catalog vendors such as L.L. Bean and Lands' End. Try to avoid backpacks made from PVC, or vinyl, a plastic that isn't recyclable in most places.

Simple Shoes, famous for its comfortable, low-maintenance sneakers, also makes bags from sustainable and recycled materials such as jute, bamboo, soda bottles, and cork.

Earthpak gives your discarded soda bottles new life in the form of fabric. The company offers brightly colored backpacks and computer bags made from 98 percent recycled materials.

Seamless Planet creates school and lunch bags from 100 percent organic cotton. The company's founder, the mother of a child with autism, wanted to find bags that contained no toxins and decided to make them herself. To purchase, call 718-875-4007.

Rawganique and EcoBody Wear sell knapsacks made from hemp, a tried-and-true Earth-friendly material because it grows like a weed, requires little pesticide, and is easy to process. Voltaic solar bags feature embedded solar panels on the outside for charging capability-convenient should your eco-friendly student need to power up her cell phone or MP3 player on the go.

Paper products
Kids can help reduce the burden on trees by using recycled paper made from post-consumer waste, the market for which prevents used paper from going into the landfill. There is also "tree-free" paper, made from materials such as cotton and hemp. Also, encourage your children to use up an entire notebook before moving on to the next one.

Notebooks
The Center for a New American Dream, a nonprofit that helps Americans become wiser consumers, suggests a few brands that can be found at large office-supply stores such as OfficeMax, Office Depot, and Staples. Nature Saver-brand recycled steno notebooks feature 60 percent recycled paper and 30 percent post-consumer waste. Second Nature produces 100 percent recycled writing pads and notebooks made with 40 percent post-consumer waste. Ampad offers notebooks made with 50 percent recycled content; 20 percent is post-consumer waste. And EarthWise has a 100 percent recycled composition notebook.

The Green Office offers NotePro plain-ruled notebooks made from 100 percent recycled fibers, and a minimum of 30 percent post-consumer material. Ampad Envirotech notebooks, made from 100 percent post-consumer recycled paper, are available from Green Earth Office Supply.

Copier and printer paper
Office Depot sells recycled paper under its Envirocopy brand, which is made of 35 percent post-consumer waste. Staples sells its own brand of recycled copier paper, which is 30 percent post-consumer content.

OfficeMax-brand recycled copier paper also contains 30 percent post-consumer content.

Southworth's Fine Recycled Paper contains 25 percent cotton fiber (tree-free) and 75 percent recycled paper, with 50 percent post-consumer waste. Treecycle sells a variety of office papers with a range of post-consumer waste content levels.

Green Earth Office Supply sells a Tree Friendly Recycled Paper sampler pack so you can select the eco-friendly paper you like best. The company says your pack might include the following: Forest Saver obsolete-map paper (sheets are made from maps that are no longer valid); Eco 21 hemp, flax, and cotton paper; Genesis, New Leaf, and Everest brands of 100 percent post-consumer recycled paper; 100 percent denim paper; paper made from post-consumer waste and banana fibers; and paper made from post-consumer paper and coffee fibers. Banana and coffee fibers? Now that's reusing.

Folders and binders
Major office-supply stores sell their own brands of recycled file and pocket folders.

GreenLine Paper Company sells EarthWise 100 percent recycled portfolio folders and report covers. Green Earth Office Supply sells binders made from recycled computer circuit boards and from recycled rubber (which comes from what were once tires in Florida). Treecycle offers binders made from 45 to 100 percent post-consumer waste plastic.

Pens and pencils
Ideally, you'd use refillable pens so that only the ink cartidge-or just the ink alone-needs to be replaced. If that's not a realistic option for your kid, you can find disposable pens made from recyclable materials. The same goes for pencils; mechanical pencils can be reused with refills, which cuts down on waste. However, some pencils are made from wood certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), and from other recycled materials.

The Green Office sells Triggerwood refillable pens and pencils, which are made with scraps of wood from sustainably harvested forests. GreenLine Paper Company sells pencils made from recycled blue jeans, and Skilcraft pens made from recycled plastic.

ForestChoice pencils are made with FSC-certified wood (incense-cedar, to be precise), ensuring that the wood in your pencil comes from responsibly harvested forests.

Hit up your foreign friends for Pilot's BeGreen line of recycled pens made from recycled plastic, currently available only in the U.K. and Canada.

Odds and ends
3M offers its handy-dandy Post-it Notes in a recycled version, which are made from 30 percent post-consumer waste. You can purchase them from major office-supply stores, the Green Office, or GreenLine Paper Company.

GreenLine Paper also sells low-odor, environmentally safe correction fluid.

Recycled denim makes an appearance in rulers, too.

Green Earth Office Supply sells paper clips made from recycled steel.

Lunch
Lunches can be a huge source of waste. If you pack a lunch for your child, try to avoid disposables. Pack snacks in reusable containers, and send them off with a thermos for drinks. Use cloth napkins, stainless steel cutlery, and an eco-friendly updated lunch box, all of which are lead-free. Yes, they'll have to remember to bring these things back to you, but they have to lug those books home anyway, right?

Two ingenious moms have created Laptop Lunches-American-style Bento boxes that reduce waste and make even the most boring PB&J look gourmet! They're meant to last, but are made of recyclable plastic, too.

A Klean Kanteen stainless steel bottle won't leach toxic chemicals into your child's drink, and reduces waste.

GreenLine Paper sells washable cloth sandwich bags.

Seamless Planet offers 100 percent organic cotton lunch bags. To purchase, call 718-875-4007.

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