Zero Waste Gifts for Saint Valentine’s Day

Melissa Jan Art

Of course today, his legacy is overtaken by a huge consumer plastic-fest of rubbish. Poundland was recently criticised for selling a ‘plastic box’ of love, with nothing in it? They said it was just a bit of harmless fun. No doubt the wildlife and marine creatures have other ideas.

There are better ways to celebrate your love!

Romantic Jewellery (from recycled silver)

Lily Charmed offers beautiful jewellery all made with recycled silver, in gorgeous sustainable gift packs. There are many unique gift ideas, including ones themed around love.

There is already enough gold and silver mined on earth, to last for eternity.

Organic Bubbly & Vegan Choc Gifts

The Goodness Project offers gifts for people and companies, which you can mix and match. Wild Thing Prosecco is organic and vegan, with profits helping Born Free (a charity that campaigns for better welfare for zoo animals). A portion from each sale benefits eco or animal welfare charities.

Use a letterbox guard for chocolate gifts. Save up corks and send off to Recorked, to be made into other things (corks are too dense to compost and are choking hazards, if left lying around).

Send a box of organic vegan Booja Booja truffles, made in Norfolk.

Luisa’s Vegan Chocolates (Nottingham) offer ethical choccy gifts – all vegan, Fair Trade and with no palm oil. This box is made with ‘vegan honeycomb’ chocs.

And it’s far nice to support local artisans, over big companies that wrap all their inferior chocolates in plastic packaging. When you support local artisans, you bring more money into the local economy too. That’s real love!

Organic Bouquets of Roses & Other Blooms

The UK imports over 500 tons of roses for Valentine’s Day, despite England being able to grow so many of them, it’s our national flower.

Organic local roses are far nicer with better scent and no plastic packaging. Imported roses are usually covered with chemicals, and arrive like you would look and feel, after a long-haul flight.

Rather than buy imported and chemical-laden roses, search for local seasonal flowers by entering your postcode at Flowers from the Farm.

Many flowers (including all bulbs) are not safe near companion animals. Read more on how to create a pet-safe garden, to know blooms to avoid for home delivery (either to you, or homes with pets).

If displaying bouquets indoors, avoid facing towards outside gardens, to help prevent bird strike.

Roses are also suffering from climate change, as they like precise temperatures of 15 to 24 degrees centigrade with around 6 hours of sunlight and plenty of water. In Bulgaria, the roses are blooming too early, and others are dying due to heat stress.

Organic Blooms is a social enterprise near the maritime city of Bristol, which grows its flowers using certified organic methods, and also offers training and jobs for local people with disabilities and those who need extra support.

These bouquets are cut, arranged and packed in the field workshop and conditioned without bleach or other chemicals. This prevents water pollution in the area around Bristol, which is also good for all local wildlife.

These flowers are sold seasonally as they are local, although some blooms are extended out of season using polytunnels.

Flowers are grown using crop rotation and organic comfrey fertiliser, with the social enterprise happily knowing that a few flowers may be eaten, but that’s just organic gardening, and beneficial insects and creatures will also drop by!

All boxes and packaging are compostable, and the company is currently trying out biodegradable floristry foam and compostable aqua-packaging.

Romantic Songs from Around the World

Puumayo World Love Songs is a lovely download, from our favourite music label. Putumayo offers incredible compilations of music from the world’s best artists, all with illustrated liner notes if you buy the CDs, or just digitally download.

This CD features 10 romantic songs from around the world (all in different languages) to celebrate with someone you love. You can read the bios of all the artists at the website, and listen to sample tracks, before purchase.

Once you’ve listened to Putumayo music, you likely won’t want to listen to much else. Consider turning off junk TV and investing in a few of these instead. Then just sit back and listen..