R3VOLVED - Assortment

Closing The Loop

This eco-friendly line of school and office supplies are changing how consumers view recycled plastics.

How many plastic water bottles does it take to create a back-to-school kit? According to R3VOLVED, the magic number is 7.25. This Toronto-based company specializes in school, home and office supplies made from recycled material. R3VOLVED founders Jaquelyn Cyr and Suzanne Dyment are making it their mission to inspire green action by ensuring that their recycled products are affordable and easily accessible to consumers.

How many plastic water bottles does it take to create a back-to-school kit? According to R3VOLVED, the magic number is 7.25. This Toronto-based company specializes in school, home and office supplies made from recycled material. R3VOLVED founders Jaquelyn Cyr and Suzanne Dyment are making it their mission to inspire green action by ensuring that their recycled products are affordable and easily accessible to consumers.

Plastic beverage bottles are estimated to take 450-1000 years to biodegrade ­­­— and that’s only when they are in direct contact with the sun, a difficult feat for the 18,834,000,000 plastic beverage bottles that lay dormant under landfills and on ocean floors that are added each year.  When the plastic eventually begins to biodegrade, they leach out chemicals that are harmful to humans and the 690 marine species that encounter and consume plastic debris.

Recognizing the enormous problems associated with plastic pollution, R3VOLVED plans to divert more than 350,000 plastic bottles from ending up in landfills, oceans and incinerators during the current back-to-school season.

R3VOLVED is not limited to recycled plastic; they also manufacture recycled rubber, metal and paper to create their products that are branded with non-toxic vegetable ink and packaged using recycled paper. The line of products includes rulers, erasers, scissors, sharpeners, pens, markers, highlighters and pencil cases.

R3VOLVED challenges consumers to close the loop when recycling by purchasing recycled goods, and demanding companies to manufacture goods using recycled materials. As quoted on the R3VOLVED website, actor and activist Ed Begley Jr. says, “If you’re not buying recycled products, you’re not really recycling”.

Learn more about R3VOLVED products by visiting R3VOLVED.com and following them on Twitter

Eunize Lao is the Editorial Intern and a third-year Environment and Business student at the University of Waterloo.