Celebrate a Green Valentine's Day This Year

By Susan M. Keenan

Instead of red, try green to celebrate Valentine’s Day this year. Even if you are only a dabbler when it comes to going green for your environment, showing a bit of environmental friendliness is always a good idea.

Although paper and foil greeting cards have a lot of style and class, they typically end up in the trash after a day or two. Why not do something nice for the environment and your loved one at the same time and go green with electronic greeting cards?

The total number of websites offering free electronic greeting cards and postcards is staggering. With so many options, you could easily send your sweetheart a different ecard each day for the first two weeks of February. From plain and simple to musical variations to motion ecards, the expressions offer sweet, tender renditions of love.

If you decide to get your loved one a bouquet of flowers, opt to purchase flowers that have been organically grown. These can usually be purchased at your local farmer’s market. Commercially grown flowers are often treated with chemicals and pesticides that are harmful to our environment. Therefore, if you select organically grown blooms, you will also be giving the earth a sweet treat for Valentine’s Day. Plus, organically grown flowers are affordable as well as colorful.

Better yet, how about purchasing a plant, bush, or tree that can be planted? Not only will your Valentine realize how much you care, but she will also be able to realize it every year in the future each time she looks at this token of your love.

If you are treating your special Valentine to the sweet taste of chocolate, consider organically grown chocolate. Although you might pay a bit more for this type of treat, it does help to support healthy communities. You can usually locate organically grown chocolate at stores specializing in organic products.

If your special Valentine loves sweet pastries, bake something tastefully delicious and package it in a reusable container rather than buying something at the supermarket. Most of the plastic containers and plastic coated bags used at the supermarket are not recyclable. Therefore, you can make an impact if you choose to bake your own Valentine’s cakes and cookies each year from now on.

Another idea for a green show of affection is to prepare dinner at home rather than eating take out. Take out meals usually require the use of non-recyclable containers that spend years in a landfill somewhere.

These are only a few of the many ways that you can show that you are “green-at-heart” on Valentine’s Day. Use a bit of imagination and come up with a few of your own ideas.