With the eco news streaming like ticker tape from the big office stores this year, we thought it would be an easy assignment to find what we needed in recycled versions. We were surprised that this was not the case. The stores we sampled (Office Depot, Office Max and Target) offered only a handful of green notebooks and non-toxic pens. However, online, even the Big Box stores that had failed us in person had the environmentally good goods. Read about the full findings at Green Right Now:

OFFICE DEPOT

• Recycled Index Cards (pack of 500 $2.89).
• Foray Recycled Groundwood Construction Paper (9 x 12 colors, pack of 50, $1.49).
• Office Depot Brand College Ruled Filler paper, pack of 100, (50 percent recycled content with minimum of 30 percent post consumer content; $2.49 each).
• Costa Rica Natural Banana Paper Recycled Notebook (2-subject; 70 sheets, $5.99).
• Banana Paper notebook is made of 100 percent post-consumer waste – it doesn’t get any more responsible than that – in Nicaragua using some banana waste and local labor. Shipping zaps a little of its low-impact appeal, but Nicaragua isn’t much farther than South Dakota from where we reside. Another green notebook offered is the New Leaf 100 percent Think & Smile Postconsumer Recycled Notebook (80 sheets, $5.99; pictured) with nifty bird and tree graphic designs on the cover. Pricing on both notebooks is steep, perhaps due to economies of scale?
• For tadpoles the Office Depot website offers the 70-sheet Foray Recycled Newsprint Writing Tablet with a 1″ Rule ($2.19)
• Pens? We finally found ‘em. Zebra is the brand to look for here. They make pens from plastic casings from old car headlights and compact discs and from plastic shopping bags ($15.59 for a dozen).

STAPLES

• Staples has really been pushing their green side, with ink cartridge recycling programs and recycled office papers (which are becoming requisite at all office stores) so we expected them to have the goods. They came through with this Mead Five Star Spiral 3-subject, college ruled notebook. It’s a familiar brand and it’s composed of 50 percent post-consumer material ($7.99 ).

• We also found Staples College Ruled Filler Paper, a 400-count batch at a good price ($3.19 on sale) and the same Zebra pens made of 75 percent recycled material we found at Office Depot and for a slightly better price ($14.99 for a dozen in black ink).

• Both of these were listed as Eco-Easy products on the online store, but we were unclear what Staples means by that. Some Eco-Easy products are simply non-toxic, say pens with water-based or soy inks; the site didn’t explain the eco-friendliness of “Eco-Easy” paper but talked generally about how “eco-smart” products save resources.

• To help customers find items made of recycled materials, Staples uses the universal recycling symbol. So if you’re looking for either non-toxic or what might be called lower impact products, or recycled items, use the “Eco Easy” index online. We used it to find, for instance, low-odor Sharpies, which are better for kids.

• One new cool new green item at Staples turned up in our browsing, the recycled rubber bulletin board. The blurb claims it won’t crumble like cork, that’s green and it’s available in brown or black ($54.99).

OFFICE MAX

• We didn’t have great luck finding recycled school supplies here. A search for “recycled notebooks” turned up a lone 60-page steno pad. Pretty disappointing. Not willing to give up, we continued to poke around the website, finding recycled paper for printers, (but all the office stores carry that) and recycled Post It notes.

• Max has recycled pencils by Paper Mate Earthwrite, made from reclaimed wood rendered in a simple #2 pencil (12-pack for $1.09). Hurrah! But not enough to build an order around.

• The 1-inch EcoVue binder made by Aurora out of recycled plastic (no VOCs to worry about).

PROGRESSIVE KID

• New Leaf’s 120-sheet, 3-subject notebook, made of100 percent post-consumer recycled material ($6.99), is a good value measured against similar notebooks we saw.

• You’ll also find neat stuff not available elsewhere like this metal sandwich box. Sturdy, reusable, non-leaching ($24.99).

• The Spider Relocator is for brave parents modeling empathy and intent on saving insect-eating arachnids. Who knew?

For more reviews of online school supplies, read the full report at Green Right Now.