How to have an Eco Friendly Valentines

Posted on: 14 February 2019 by Seeyoung Park in 2020

Valentines can be an expensive time and impactful on the environment - what are the alternatives??

Valentine’s Day has become one of the biggest days in the calendar for the couples throughout the world. Today, the meaning of celebration expands and it is commonly known as the day of which chocolates and flowers. From the week before the Valentine’s Day, there are full of presents like chocolates and candies with extremely fancy packagings on the street. People know those are all for marketing which targets the consumers to buy in ridiculously high prices, however, the ‘It is only once a year’ mindset always make people repeat the same mistake. In the perspective of environment, ‘It is only once a year’ doesn’t really seem to be an good excuse. Did you know that every year tons of packagings have been trashed after the Valentine’s day? Particularly, over 163kg of plastic packagings are spent for 2 weeks only in Australia. This fact alone is shocking, but there is another factor why Valentine’s Day is the main culprit of environmental pollution.

It is obvious that the best gift for Valentine’s day is a bunch of flowers. However, those flowers have a negative influence on the environment. Producing cut flowers for Valentine’s gifts has impoverished natural resources, technically in terms of chemical and water pollution. Each cut flower needs its own process which includes packaging and shipping materials and it causes high waste of agrochemicals and preservatives. What makes it worse, those chemicals are loosely regulated because flower aren’t edible. Flowers from developing countries including Kenya, Ecuador, and Colombia are produced by using methyl bromide to protect flower from harmful insects. Methyl bromide is a chemical that harms the ozone layer. In addition, the amount of fish catch in Kenya dramatically decreased due to discharge of this chemical. So instead of giving flowers, why not give flower seeds to somebody who you love? If you really want to give flowers, choose fairtrade vendrs that grow and distribute flowers ethically like Aldi’s fairtrade range. You could also gift a plant from one of Liverpool’s local stores like Root, and give a gift that will last a lot longer than a bunch of flowers!

As the environmental issue of Valentine’s Day continues to be pointed out, other companies have started to appeal consumer with eco-friendly products. LUSH, a British Fresh Handmade Cosmetics brand, has an eco-friendly “2020 Valentine’s Edition”. In this edition, every product except one liquid shower gel, are solid and naked version that doesn’t require packaging. This is the result of LUSH’s campaign to reduce packaging waste for the environment and continued research on packages.

All of the above goes without saying the obvious – Valentines can be expensive! So instead of spending out on chocolates, flowers and cards, why not use recycled paper to create a collage card for your loved one, or purchase a gift from one of the great charity shops in Liverpool that stock everything from clothes to jewellery, bags and records – Oxfam on Bold St is a great start!

However you celebrate your eco-friendly Valentines, have a LOVEly day!