September in the UAE feels like a fresh start.
With many people arriving back from summer travels and the new school year beginning, it’s the perfect time to set new goals, start new projects, and refresh your sustainable stationary stock.
However, while we all love the feeling of writing on the first page of a new notepad, or cracking open a new set of finely sharpened pencils, it’s important to remember that stationary can be very wasteful, and filled with harmful single use plastics.
Globally, around 50 billion plastic pens are thrown away each year, with more than 90 per cent never recycled, and the back-to-school rush only adds to the pile. Factor in the millions of plastic rulers, erasers and folders that end up in landfill annually, and it’s clear that those shiny new supplies can come with a not-so-shiny environmental cost.
So, whether it’s for school, work or life in general, make sure you make your next stationary haul is an eco-friendly one, and check out our list of the best places to buy sustainable stationary in the UAE.
The Bamboo Bae, Online
Specialising in beautiful kitchen, bathroom and general homeware bamboo products, The Bamboo Bae’s sustainable stationary collection is surprisingly extensive, too. Highly durable, tasteful and ethically sourced, the highlights include elegant handmade paper notebooks with plantable covers, recycled newspaper seed pencils, sustainable pens, high-quality cork diaries, and even bamboo staplers. Also a great place to stock up on supplies for your own workplace or home office, along with school essentials for the kids, the Green Growth Sets (including a selection of the bestselling notebooks, pens and pencils) make gorgeous gifts for your eco-minded friends.
Bookends, Dubai Digital Park
Did you know that Dubai’s favourite secondhand bookshop also sells sustainable stationary? Well, you do now, and there are lots of lovely bits and bobs to choose from, including hand-painted and knitted bookmarks, wood-free plantable notebooks and greetings cards, wipeable and reusable colouring books, robust water bottles and more. Plus, with the entire business founded on a wish to get children reading as much as possible (all the books are intentionally affordable and generally priced AED 20 or less) you can feel comforted that every purchase you make supports a very well-meaning small business. Just pop in to the friendly branch at Dubai Digital Park, or shop online.
Dukkan421, Mina Zayed, Abu Dhabi
Part of 421 Arts Campus, the dynamic art gallery located in the growing creative community of Mina Zayed Abu Dhabi, Dukkan421 offers an eclectic and exciting array of locally made gifts, homeware products, jewellery and stationary, all made by by local artisans, and largely inspired by Emirati culture and history. Proudly unique to any other stationary collection in the UAE, you’ll find notebooks designed to look like Abu Dhabi’s iconic skyscrapers, sketchbooks decorated with drawings of Emirati crafts, and many other fun and meaningful UAE-themed stickers and greeting cards.
Veteran Abu Dhabi residents will particularly enjoy the notebooks decorated with nostalgic photos from time gone by, while the extraordinarily innovative sawdust pencils are a genius demonstration of how everything can be reused and recycled. While you’re there, you may as well check out the seasonal (and free to enter) exhibitions too.
The Green Ecostore, Online
Launched back in 2009, The Green Ecostore has been providing the UAE with eco friendly home, fashion and children’s products for over 15 years, and there are few better places to replenish your family’s sustainable stationary essentials. Choose from recycled and recyclable notebooks and weekly planners in an abundance of different designs, plantable wood-free paper, and quirky sets of ‘scencils’. While kids will love them simply for their fruity smells, you’ll appreciate that each one is made from recycled rolled up newspapers.
MINT Market, Online
Exclusively dedicated to stationary, fashion and home products by small and ethical UAE-based businesses, MINT Market is an eco-shopper’s dream. Offering a whole dedicated ‘Back to School’ section, they’ve also made it easy for you to get your little ones prepared for the new school year. Spanning kids’ journals and notepads, durable lunch bags and pencil cases, personalised rucksacks, and much more, the clever seeded book covers and bookmarks can be planted and grown into flowers and herbs once they have fulfilled their use. Sustainable stationary success at a click.
Save the Planet, Online
Focused on helping corporations and businesses operate more sustainably, the responsibly sourced stationary items sold by Save the Planet are ideal if you’re looking to make a bulk order for a team or club. Including a wide range of eco-seed pens and crayons, plantable pencils and calendars (paired with mini coco pots and peat for extra-easy planting) and biodegradable notebooks, all the products and packaging used are carbon negative, and made from recycled paper, too.
Shift Eco, Online
Committed to making ‘going green’ as seamless as possible, Shift Evo offers one of the most extensive selections of sustainable stationery in the UAE. Filled with wonderful products made from all kinds of imaginative repurposed materials, you’ll find everything you need amongst the recycled ink carton pens, corn plastic scissors, recycled rubber erasers, recycled plastic cello tapes, sugarcane paper notebooks, bamboo pencil sharpeners and rulers, plant-based glue sticks, recycled gel highlighters and all the many other creative products. Reasonably priced, kids will love the pots of plantable crayons and pencils, while large orders of office supplies for businesses can also be arranged.
