Celebrate this Valentine's Day with your sweetheart while also showing some love to planet earth.
According to the National Retail Federation, total consumer spending for Valentine's Day this year is expected to reach $17.3 billion. In addition, the Greeting Card Association reports that Valentine's Day is the second most popular card-giving holiday behind Christmas, with an average of 145 million cards purchased, and that doesn't include classroom valentines. That's a lot of paper waste!
So to spread the love this Valentine's Day—to your significant other, your family, your friends, and our planet, go for some eco-friendly options when celebrating.
We love scouring the web for eco-friendly baby products, gift ideas, and now Valentine's Day staples like wine and chocolates. It's getting easier to easier to find retailers who are going green, making organic products, and caring about sustainability. Check out these eco-friendly Valentine's Day finds and our tips to have a love-filled earth-friendly holiday!
Eco-wine:
Enjoy wine from vineyards that have "green" practices. Wine made with organic grapes on land that is sustainably certified creates a delicious vino that doesn't hurt our planet.
Frey Vineyards: This winery in northern California produces all organic wines with no sulfites added.
Ponzi Wines: All 120 acres of this Oregon vineyard and winery are LIVE Certified Sustainable.
Frog's Leap: All grapes are grown organically at this winery in Rutherford, California.
Coturri Winery: The grapes used for Coturri wines have not been sprayed or treated with pesticides, fungicides, or herbicides.
Quintessa: This vineyard in Napa Valley is managed using sustainable and organic practices.
Eco-chocolate:
Nunu Chocolates: This chocolate maker gets their cacao beans from a family-run sustainable farm in Colombia.
John & Kira's: These chocolates highlight ingredients from small family producers and urban gardens, and are big proponents of sourcing locally.
Vosges Haut-Chocolate: Created by chocolatier Katrina Markoff, this company's most recent "green" endeavor was creating a platinum LEED-certified green manufacturing and chocolate lifestyle house in Chicago. Vosges Haut-Chocolate also uses packaging made of 100% post-consumer recycled materials and is committed to sustainable practices.
Theo: Since 2006, this Seattle chocolate maker has been committed to making eco-friendly chocolate. Theo chocolate is organic, fair trade, and made using the most sustainable practices possible.
Make your Valentine's Day greener with these eco tips:
- If you receive a gift in a box (like chocolates or jewelry), save that box and upcycle it. Use fabric, wrapping paper, non-toxic paints, or anything else in your craft supplies to repurpose the box to use at a later time when it's your turn to give a gift. The recipient will love the extra time and care you put into making it!
- Cellophane wrappers around flowers can be saved and used as wrapping paper (perhaps for a gift basket), used as stuffing inside packages, or made into this fun star garland or these balloons wrapped like candy—great decor for a party!
- Check out our eco-friendly Valentine's Day cards round-up to see some great paper cards.
- Get crafty and make your own Valentine's Day cards. Pinterest has some amazing ideas. The EPA suggests making cards from scrap paper or remaking old cards into Valentine's Day ones using scrap paper and other craft supplies.
Do you have any favorite eco-friendly wine or chocolate brands you typically buy? Tell us about them in the comments.
We aim to provide you with the most honest and credible information possible. This article was reviewed for accuracy by The Honest Team and was written based on trusted sources that are linked at the bottom of the article.
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