Your guide to an Earth-friendly Valentine’s Day
Crafts and shopping tips to help your family have an eco-conscious celebration
For kids, Valentine’s Day is all about the goods. “My students often get really excited about handing out the valentines,” says Jackie Dennis, a second-grade teacher in Overland Park, Kansas. “But at the end of the day, each kid is taking home 20 little valentines, treats, and knickknacks that will probably end up in the trash.”
Each year, Americans exchange 145 million greeting cards and spend about $23.9 billion on gifts. But the holiday’s warm and fuzzy intentions have a cost: raw materials to create products and the energy to move them around the globe. “But chocolate, for example, has a strong cultural significance in family and holiday celebrations,” says food expert Carolyn Dimitri.
You don’t need to give up treats to go easy on Earth. Read on to discover eco-friendly shopping tips, quick crafts, and suggestions for disposing the leftovers. After all, protecting the planet is an act of love!
Choose chocolate carefully
According to data from bulk candy seller Candy Store, one of the most popular valentine treats is a heart-shaped box of chocolates. Most of the world’s cocoa beans are grown by small-scale farmers in West Africa, especially Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) and Ghana. But as global demand for chocolate increases, farmers cut down rainforest to make space for more cocoa trees.
The World Bank estimates that the Ivory Coast has lost 80 percent of its forest since 1970, partially due to cocoa production. That removes a climate change mitigation tool, since trees absorb heat-trapping carbon dioxide. Local animals are affected, too: Researchers from several Ivory Coast institutions and the University of Ohio found that 13 protected areas in that country had lost all of their primate populations, in part because of the cocoa industry’s practices.
MAKE IT: CHOCOLATE SMOOCHES
• Large pot
• Spoon
• 4 tablespoons butter or butter alternative
• ½ cup sustainably sourced chocolate chips
• 10-ounce bag of marshmallows (Consider using vegan.)
• 5 cups rice cereal
• Aluminum foil
• Paper scraps and markers (optional)
What to do:
• Place the butter and chocolate in a pot over medium heat. Stir until completely melted.
• Add marshmallows and stir until melted.
• Remove from heat.
• Add the rice cereal one cup at a time. Stir until combined, then let it cool slightly.
• Carefully scoop a heap of the mixture out of the pot and form it into a cone shape with your hands.
• Wrap the treats in scrunched-up aluminum foil.
• Decorate with a paper sash and a note.
BUY IT: We get it—sometimes kids just want store-bought candy. Look for chocolates that are certified by a third party like the Rainforest Alliance (which sets standards for environmental sustainability and social conditions), or see how your fave treats stack up using this chocolate scorecard. Dimitri also suggests trying small brands that are transparent about where they source their ingredients. “Those brands can be a bit more expensive, but chocolate should be a special treat,” says Dimitri, an associate professor of nutrition and food studies at New York University.
TOSS IT: Send plastic wrappers to a company called TerraCycle. (You’ll have to pay for the box.) If you’d rather recycle curbside, look for candies covered in aluminum foil and create a foil ball that’s about three inches in diameter before putting into the bin. “Otherwise it falls through the system and is typically not captured for recycling,” recycling expert Randy Hartman says. “For chocolate lovers, it’s an added plus—you’ll need to eat a lot of candy!”
Better blooms
Flowers seem like a low-waste valentine treat, but according to researchers at North Carolina State, about 81 percent of flowers sold in the United States are imported from South America, especially Colombia and Ecuador. Blooms like roses, carnations, chrysanthemums, and hydrangeas are then refrigerated and flown to the United States, then trucked to florists and grocery stores. That creates lots of carbon dioxide emissions.
But in-country flowers aren’t always better. Flowers in places with cold winters like the United States and Europe often grow in energy-intensive greenhouses. A 2007 study from Cranfield University found that roses grown in greenhouses in the Netherlands then sold in-country had over 15 times the carbon footprint of roses grown outdoors in Kenya.
MAKE IT: TOILET-PAPER-ROLL FLOWERS
• A toilet-paper roll or cardboard egg carton
• Potting mix
• Flower seeds (We used nasturtium seeds.)
What to do:
• If you're using a toilet-paper roll, use scissors to make four one-inch cuts into one side of the roll so you can fold in the sides to create a bottom. If you're using an egg carton, tear off the top of the carton and recycle or compost it.
• Spoon potting soil into the toilet-paper roll or into each egg-carton hole. Add a bit of water to the soil, mix it in, and let it set for about a half an hour—the soil should be moist but not soggy.
• Use a finger to make space in the soil according to the instructions on the seed package.
• Place a few seeds in the spaces and cover with soil.
• Place the carton in a sunny spot in a warm room. Spray the seeds with water according to the directions on the seed package.
• The seeds should sprout in about a week, and they will be ready to be transplanted to your garden in about four weeks. You can plant the toilet-paper rolls straight into the ground, and you can compost the egg carton after removing the sprouts.
BUY IT: Look for local, seasonal flowers that were grown outside, like daffodils, pansies, and witch hazel. Or check the flower shop for bouquets certified by Fairtrade International (which audits for worker safety and fair pay) or the Rainforest Alliance. You can also search for blooms grown in the United States with this directory.
TOSS IT: Once you’re done with your blooms, compost the flowers.
Considerate cards
Greeting cards probably aren’t the worst offenders when it comes to global deforestation. (According the World Wildlife Fund, destroying habitat for cattle ranches and soy fields is much worse.) But the paper industry is responsible for about 15 percent of total wood consumption and the EPA reports that 17.2 million tons of paper and paperboard were landfilled in 2018. The best valentines are made with paper you already have in your home.
MAKE IT: VALENTINES AND ENVELOPES
• Colorful paper
• Crayons or markers
• Colorful scrap paper from a magazine or an old calendar
• Tape or sticker
• Mailing labels or white scrap paper
What to do:
• Fold a piece of colorful paper in half and have your kids cut a half-heart shape.
• Decorate the paper with a Valentine’s Day message to a family member or friend.
• Grab your scrap paper and place your card on top width-wise, on whichever side your child wants to be the inside of the envelope. (You might need to refold the heart card to adjust to the size of your envelope paper.)
• Fold the long sides of the magazine paper so that it slightly covers the card.
• Fold the bottom and top of the envelope, secure with tape or a sticker.
• Place a mailing label or pieces of white scrap paper on the other side to address your envelope.
BUY IT: Look for cards that are made of just paper, with no added glitter or foil. Cards made of 100 percent recycled paper are another option, as are ones certified by the Forest Stewardship Council that signal the product was made from sustainably managed forests.
TOSS IT: Cards that are only paper can go right into the recycling bin; paper that’s covered in glitter or foil goes into the trash. If you can pop off the extra decoration, like a ribbon or other doodad, simply remove it before putting the paper into the recycling bin. And never recycle a “singing” card without removing the battery inside: These items can cause fires at recycling centers, so the battery should be brought to a hazardous waste drop-off.
