How to Have an Eco-Friendly Valentine’s Day

How to Celebrate an Eco-Friendly Valentine’s Day

Red and pink might be the official colors of Valentine’s Day, but this year, consider introducing a new color: green! With these 10 simple tips, you’ll discover just how easy it is to show your sweetheart how much you care while still having an eco-friendly Valentine’s Day.

1. Buy a Plant

Roses might be a popular gift on Valentine’s Day, but they’re hard on the environment. Roses are typically grown using a lot of artificial light and heat. Then they rack up the carbon emissions when they’re shipped all over the country.

Plus, they just end up dying and being thrown away a few days later. Rather than get your sweetheart a rose bouquet, have an eco-friendly Valentine’s Day by choosing a potted plant that everyone can enjoy for years to come.

If you really want to show your Valentine how much you care, give them one of these hard-to-kill houseplants that are great at boosting indoor air quality.

Related: The Best Pet-Friendly Houseplants That Also Purify the Air

2. Give Fair-Trade Chocolate

Along with roses, chocolate is another popular gift on Valentine’s Day. Unfortunately, many people don’t know that deforestation, child labor, and impoverished working conditions plague cocoa production.

If you still want to give your love some chocolate, shop for fair-trade chocolate to support better working and growing conditions. Fair-trade chocolate is often shade-grown, which protects rain forests. It also ensures farmers have safe working conditions and are paid a fair wages.

If you want to make your gift extra-special, consider Endangered Species Chocolate, which donates profits to help protect wildlife and habitats. You can even have some fun by getting a Make Your Own Chocolate Kit that contains fair-trade cocoa butter and cocoa powder to make something special with your Valentine.

Related: The Top Ethical and Sustainable Chocolate Brands

3. Give an Eco-Friendly Gift

If you tend to skip the flowers and chocolates and give a gift, you can have a green Valentine’s Day by choosing an eco-friendly gift. These eco-friendly candles feature soy wax for a cleaner burn, essential oils for a safe fragrance, and beautiful containers you can reuse or recycle.

If you’re looking for even more great gift ideas for your sweetheart that won’t hurt the environment, be sure to check out our 14 best eco-friendly Valentine’s Day gifts.

4. Make an Upcycled Gift

If you prefer to make a Valentine’s Day gift rather than buy one, consider an upcycled gift. When you create an upcycled gift, you take something that has already been produced and give it a new life.

If you’re having problems coming up with an idea, here are over 15 awesome upcycled Valentine’s Day gift ideas you can use for inspiration.

5. Wrap in Zero-Waste Wrapping Paper

Once you pick out the perfect environmentally friendly gift, keep your eco-friendly Valentine’s Day going by wrapping it in zero-waste gift wrap.

You can’t recycle most traditional wrapping paper. However, this seeded gift wrap is made from recycled paper and embedded with wildflower seeds.

When Valentine’s Day is over, simply plant the paper in the soil and watch for beautiful flowers to grow.

6. Give an Eco-Friendly Card

According to the Greeting Card Association, Americans will spend $1 billion on cards and exchange 190 million cards on Valentine’s Day. Now think about how many of those cards end up in the trash.

When you’re getting your eco-friendly seeded wrapping paper, don’t forget to pick up an eco-friendly seeded card as well.

These seeded cards are made using recycled paper and earth-friendly ink. When Valentine’s Day is over, plant the card and enjoy the colorful flowers that will bloom from it.

7. Choose an Eco-Friendly Wine

If you’re planning a romantic evening for your sweetheart, you might be thinking about getting a bottle of wine. If you do, make sure it’s an eco-friendly organic wine.

Organic wines are made using organic grapes, which means you won’t have to worry about any harmful pesticides included in your drink. Even better, not only did a study performed by UCLA show that eco-certified wines taste better, but they’re often cheaper than traditional wines.

8. Dine at a Farm-to-Table Restaurant

If you’re planning on taking your love out to dinner, have an eco-friendly Valentine’s Day by choosing a farm-to-table restaurant. Farm-to-table restaurants use locally grown food and ingredients to prepare their dishes.

When you dine at one of these restaurants, you’re supporting local farmers and decreasing carbon emissions from fossil fuels used to transport foods.

9. Select a Non-Toxic Perfume

Even though perfumes smell great, they can contain harmful chemicals that can cause skin irritations, headaches, and even cancer. Enjoy an eco-friendly Valentine’s Day by skipping the perfumes and going with essential oils instead.

You can even make your own custom scents by combining your favorite essential oils and a carrier oil. Spend the evening with your Valentine mixing and matching scents to see which ones you like best.

10. Give Antique or Recycled Jewelry

Another popular gift on Valentine’s Day is jewelry. If you want to make this tradition more eco-friendly, look for a piece of vintage jewelry at an antique store or flea market.

If you can’t find anything you like that’s already made, you can have an eco-friendly Valentine’s Day by purchasing jewelry made by a local artist.

You can also buy jewelry made with recycled materials. For example, Moneta Jewelry employs artisan jewelers who make pieces using recycled glass, metal, and other materials.

Celebrating an Eco-Friendly Valentine’s Day

This year, you don’t have to choose between protecting the environment and showing your sweetheart how much you care. Instead, you can do both by using these tips to have an eco-friendly Valentine’s Day.

More Eco-Friendly Holiday Tips

Now that you see how easy it is to have an eco-friendly Valentine’s Day, are you looking for even more ways to make all your favorite holidays more eco-friendly? Check out some of our other popular eco-friendly holiday posts:

• How to Have an Eco-Friendly Halloween
• Enjoy an Eco-Friendly Thanksgiving With These Easy Tips
• Top 15 Eco-Friendly Gifts Under $25
• How to Have an Eco-Friendly Easter
• The Best Eco-Friendly Gifts for Mother’s Day