Love is in the air! Valentine’s Day has become a swoon-worthy excuse to celebrate the love you and your partner share. Sadly, like most holidays, it has also become somewhat of a waste-heavy nightmare for the environment. The sweet tokens of flowers, diamonds, and chocolates can bring a smile to your sweetie’s face, yet they all add up to a giant disaster for the Earth. That’s why eco-friendly Valentine’s Day gifts are great choices for celebrating this lovely day.

Americans spend around $18.9 billion dollars on V-Day each year. Flowers make up $2.1 billion of those sales and cards account for $1.5 billion. These items alone amount to several truckloads of trash after just one fleeting evening of admiration. There has to be a better way!

Eco-Friendly Alternatives to Typical Valentine’s Day Gifts

This year, instead of gifting the usual, disposable gifts (who wants to be cliché, anyway?), step outside the box and consider eco-friendly alternatives for your Valentine’s Day celebration.

Cards

Greeting cards serve several purposes. Firstly, they convey a special message to your loved one. Secondly, they have a pleasing aesthetic through photos, beautiful scripts, or funny cartoons. If we boil down this disposable paper gift into these elements, we can find other ways to deliver these features to your sweet.

Instead of cards, gift a photo album or collage. This could be digital or printed, but either way it would spark a walk down memory lane of your favorite times together. You could also write or draw a special message on a reusable chalkboard or dry erase board to avoid tossing out the one-time gift of a card. If you are a creative type, you could paint, sculpt, or build a gift that leaves no doubt of your undying love and affection.

Flowers

The gift of cut flowers lasts only a few days before they wilt and must be thrown away or composted. Not only is this wasteful, but it never feels good to toss out what was once a beautiful floral arrangement.

If you know your other half appreciates a botanical gift, consider giving a potted plant that will last for much, much longer. A collection of succulents is easy to maintain and strikingly beautiful. Air-filtering house plants serve a dual purpose of lovely gift and helpful household tool. If your love enjoys cooking, he or she would probably appreciate an herb garden. And you will both get to enjoy the flavorful dishes cooked with the herbs for months!. Lastly, if you just want to provide something sweet-smelling to your sweetie, but not necessarily flowers, consider giving a collection of essential oils that can be used to freshen a room over and over again.

Chocolates

When you picture a box of chocolates, how much waste is involved? There’s the box — lid and bottom — as well as a plastic liner and several waxed paper cups for each individual treat. That’s a lot of excess just to get to the delicious chocolate morsels inside. Ditch the traditional, wasteful chocolate display this year and instead make some sweets from scratch. You can package them in reusable containers you already have lying around or arrange them on a fancy plate. The extra frills may seem like a nice gesture, but the treats themselves and the thought behind them will leave a lasting impression.

Diamonds

“Conflict diamonds” are given that name for a very good reason. Not only does the mining for the raw material disrupt the environment, but purchasing these gems can also contribute to war and horrifying human rights abuses. You can avoid supporting such practices by opting for “conflict-free” or even man-made diamonds. But first ask yourself: why are you buying diamonds at all?

If your sweetie has her or his heart set on a glistening necklace, that’s understandable — and worth every effort to source a stone with the lowest environmental and abusive impact. Although, if your answer was “Because that’s what you gift on Valentine’s Day?” it’s probably time to consider some alternatives. There are several international organizations who provide quality employment, healthcare, and support to women who make beautiful jewelry and accessories. Consider gifting from one of those companies this year.

Dinner and a Movie

If the idea of giving a physical gift just doesn’t jive with what you and your partner are all about, brainstorm a way to gift an experience instead. This might look like a fancy dinner date or a night on the town, but it could be even simpler. Taking a crisp hike through the woods together, cooking a meal at home, or planning a trip together during warmer weather are all perfectly wonderful ways of expressing your love and devotion.

This Valentine’s Day, take a step outside the norm and make the day all about loving your other half and the world in which you both live.

Katie Medlock is a writer, mental health counselor, and educator on a quest to make the world a better place. Her writing has appeared on Headspace, Inhabitat, Care2, Ravishly, and Chic Vegan. On her days off, you will find her cooking, catching up on nerdy podcasts, blogging at The Offbeat Herbivore (https://offbeatherbivore.com), or lounging with her partner and rescue dachshund.

Let us know below or on social media what you plan on doing for Valentine’s Day!