5 Sustainable Valentine’s Day Ideas

Jan 29

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Valentine's Day is a holiday marked with love. As you plan epic ways to express your love to your loved ones, also consider your love for the planet we all live on.

Valentine’s Day is often filled with sweets wrapped in lots of plastic and single use decorations that are also often plastic based. To help keep the planet healthier this Valentine's Day consider our five sustainable Valentine’s Day Ideas.

1.Buy local or dried flowers

Valentine’s Day sees a huge uptick in floral sales with many different types of flowers being shipped in from all over the world. Bear in mind the huge amount of carbon emissions it takes to get your flowers shipped across the world.

If possible opt to buy from local florists. Look for potted flowers to give instead so that your loved one can have them for years to come (if they’re perennials). You could also look into getting dried flowers from your local shops. Dried flowers last for many months to come. I currently have a bouquet of dried lavender that is two years old now and it still is a beautiful blue purple color.

2. Ditch the balloons

If you haven’t already stopped buying balloons it is time to say goodbye. Balloons are a huge waste of materials from the casing to the helium. Balloons and balloon pieces notoriously end up polluting the environment.

If you are an absolute fan of balloons and can’t part with their festive colors and shapes we highly recommend finding glass balloons to give instead. Not only are glass balloons unique and far more eco-friendly, but they also last so much longer than a traditional balloon.

3. Use eco-friendly candles

Candles are often thought of to be a romantic symbol however many common candles can be filled with toxic ingredients (1).

Alternatives to help make your home smell lovely would be an essential oil diffuser. Be sure to snag fantastic pure essential oils from Aromed Essentials. If candles are a must for you and your Valentine’s Day plans we would recommend Siblings.

The way Siblings works is you purchase their candle making kit which comes with wax (packaged in a compostable bag) and you bring your own container. Maybe this is an old cleaned out candle container or maybe it's a thrift store find.

The ingredients in this candle mix are far safer and more environmentally conscious than the candles you will pick up for $1 at the store. Which will help you, your loved ones, and the planet live longer and healthier lives!

4. Pick up a card that can be planted

Valentine’s Day cards abound but have you seen the plantable cards? These cards can be planted in dirt after they are used and can then sprout wildflowers. It's a fun idea that allows for the card to be broken down in the environment vs becoming landfill waste and you may even get some beautiful flowers from it.

If you are looking for a cute heart shaped plantable Valentine’s Day card be sure to check out Lively Root’s Wildflower Seed Paper Note Cards.

5. Buy sustainable chocolates

Sweets and chocolates are another traditional symbol of Valentine’s Day. The problem that comes with sweets and chocolates is that they are usually packaged heavily in single use plastics and their ingredients are not sustainably sourced.

To look for more sustainable chocolates be sure to check out Farmhouse Chocolates and Tony’s Chocolonely.

Farmhouse Chocolates is a small Vermont based chocolate company. All their products are made with certified organic, fair trade, soy free chocolates and all are wrapped in sustainable packaging. I personally love their salted caramels and my partner loved their milk chocolate bar with orange and Alaskan sea salt.

Tony’s Chocolonely calls themselves a “social impact company that makes chocolate”. One of the problems in the chocolate making industry is with the extremely low prices chocolate giants keep cocoa at. This leads to cocoa farmers living in extreme poverty which creates space for forced labor and child labor.

Tony’s Chocolonely is one of the very few companies we know of that is trying to actually address this. One way they address this problem is by paying the farmers a premium for their cocoa which in turn gives the farmers a higher income. This can lead to the farmers investing back in their farms in the form of more sustainable practices. The packaging on the chocolates themselves are also recyclable and made with recycled materials.

Whatever your Valentine’s Day plans are, we hope you now have some sustainable ideas to potentially incorporate into your day. Let us know if you try any or have some sustainable Valentine’s Day tips of your own in the comments below!