Love Without Waste: A Green Guide to Valentines Day

Valentine’s day is a great time to show your love and appreciation for those around you, especially your partner. Some people put a lot of pressure on the big day, and others just chill and play it by ear. No matter what kind of person you might be, we’ve got a handful of surefire ways to incorporate environmental sustainability into your February 14th:

A close-up shot of pink and red flowers.

Support Local Businesses for Your Gift Giving Needs

Buying a wallet-friendly, quickly delivered gift from a megacorporation like Amazon or Walmart is certainly tempting, especially if you’re on a budget or time crunch. However, these corporations and others like them are downright awful for the environment.

By supporting a local business in search of your gift, you’re also:

Building up your local economy
Local businesses keep dollars in your town’s economy by improving their goods and services for sale, paying their (local) workers, and investing their money into the community as a whole through cooperation with similar businesses, sponsorship of fundraisers/school programs, and more.

Giving out something unique or one-of-a-kind
Products supplied by local businesses are often handmade and/or distributed on an extremely small scale. Not only that, but local businesses have the potential to provide more product diversity than large companies that are catering to the watered-down wants of the entire globe. By shopping somewhere close to home (that’s not a chain), you’ll be looking at products designed for your specific demographic or familiar atmosphere.

Helping the planet!
Local businesses do less damage to the environment than corporate entities. Places like Amazon and Walmart ship their products to and from everywhere across the globe, racking up a staggering amount of carbon emissions.

Try Potted Plants

There’s nothing more classically romantic than a bouquet of flowers on Valentine’s Day. Unfortunately, a lot of the pre-arranged flowers you purchase at the grocery store are pumped with dyes, preservatives, insecticides, and other chemicals to keep them fresh for extended periods. The production and spread of these chemicals is bad for the earth and dangerous for human lungs. Because flower arrangements are not legally designated as a ‘consumable product’, there is technically no limit to the number of pesticides that can be applied to them during growth.

A living plant has the opportunity to be fresh for much longer, anyways. The world needs more of them. They’re good for the air and make a great decoration piece that will continue to thrive long after your typical Valentine’s flowers would be wilting and discarded. Plus, choosing a specific pot to go with your plant of choice can add to the personalization factor of your gift, especially if you opt to hand-paint or decorate it.

a potted plant in with a plain backdrop. The leaves are red, green, and shaped to resemble hearts.

Focus on the Moments

The history of Valentine’s Day is cloudy. We know it as a blend of Christian and Pagan traditions. We know February has had a centuries-long reputation for romance, dating back to festivals and traditions formed in ancient Rome itself. Images of Cupid originated before that, in ancient Greece, however the specific lore behind a ‘St. Valentine’ is often disputed.

Continuing the timeline, there are many records of people giving out handmade Valentines to loved ones as early as the seventeenth century. While this tradition has proven to stick, the rampant commercialization of the holiday as a whole since the industrial revolution is undeniable.

The Earth is at stake because of the commercialization and commodification of everything. It’s not just the producers of generic heartfelt cards. It’s those of us who buy them, too. This is why the homemade and the intangible are so important on holidays like these. A handmade card takes time and effort and is infinitely unique and personal. Acts of service and kindness are unique and personal. Learning to make something is inherently more meaningful than paying money to have it made and delivered. Things from the heart and individual to you, like the time you spend, cannot be replicated like a generic card can.

With that being said, this isn’t an all-or-nothing kind of fight. I’m not asking you to refuse participation in anything corporate or commercialized. In fact, that would be near impossible in 2025. I’m simply asking you to take a minute to think about your usual Valentine’s Day routine and consider a small change or two, a change that might further align you with your earth-saving values.

Pink and red heart balloons in an empty white room.

Share your sustainable gift or date plans in the comments below! It doesn’t matter if you’ve been working on something elaborate, taking a simple walk in the park, or flying solo. We enjoy connecting with our readers!