10 Low Waste Valentine's Day Decor Ideas for a Greener Celebration
‘Tis the season for all things Valentine. Like many other celebratory occasions it comes with gifts, food, and decorations. This means it also comes with a lot of waste.
All those flowers, chocolates, and candy often come wrapped in plastic packaging, all of which ends up in landfills, where it takes years to break down.
Plastic pollution includes balloons, which are made from plastic, and often float into oceans, where marine life mistakes them for food. Plus, even natural gifts can cause problems.
Flowers, especially roses, are practically a given on Valentine’s Day; but they often come wrapped in plastic and have a heavy carbon footprint due to the emissions from their long-haul transportation and the refrigeration needed to keep them fresh.
Read our guide on sustainable flower delivery services!
If you choose to celebrate Valentine’s Day it does not have to come with a whole lot of waste. There are many fun, pretty, and plastic-free ways to decorate your home, schoolroom, or office…so ditch the balloons and try these natural options instead.
The List of Natural and Zero Waste Decor Ideas for Valentine’s Day
Here is a list of some feature decor ideas!
Locally Sourced Flowers
Flowers are a Valentine’s classic, brightening up your home and your day. If you’re going fresh, support local florists and purchase blooms in season to reduce increased carbon emissions that come with long-distance travel and storage.
Seek bunches and bouquets with minimal or zero packaging; even better, pick a variety from your own garden, if that’s an option.
Place your fresh finery in vases, or make wreaths and garlands. When making wreaths, you can use entirely natural materials by bending and twining twigs together and then looping in flowers. If you do need some kind of binding material, use twine made out of jute or sisal.
These materials are biodegradable: that way you can throw the whole thing in the compost afterwards. Use dried flowers for something even longer-lasting.
Make Paper Flowers
There’s another type of flower you can use to decorate: paper flowers. They make for a fun project, plus it’s a great way to use old newspapers, pamphlets, magazines, and even books.
Elevate your flowers further by scenting them with perfume or essential oils. The best part about these flowers is that they won’t wilt. Afterwards, you can recycle or compost them, but this comes with caveats.
Colored paper or paper with glossy finishes may not be recyclable or compostable. The same goes for any flowers you’ve constructed with glue or scented with perfumes and oils. Rather make them strong and sturdy so they’re easier to reuse.
Craft Hearts
You can use paper to craft not only flowers but hearts too. You can use colorful paper, cut out hearts, and string them together to make a paper heart garland. For extra sustainability you can use seed paper! Then you can plant it afterwards.
But don’t stop at paper. Yarn and fabric are also great materials for making decorative hearts. Crochet hearts from yarn and use them as decorations or coasters.
Stuffed fabric hearts make for pretty décor, and you can use them as pincushions afterwards. Stick to natural fabrics like cotton. Instead of buying new fabric, use old clothes that are too worn out for donating or giving away.
Stuff your hearts with cotton balls to fill them, or even use scraps of old fabric as filler.
Decorate Branches
Once you’ve made your hearts – whether out of paper or fabric – use them to decorate old branches. Place the branches in pretty vases as an eye-catching centre-piece.
Fill Glass Jars with Candy
Filling old jars and bottles with candy is another fun, and delicious, idea. Make it Valentine’s ready by filling them with pink, red, or heart-shaped candy. They’re already so colorful, they’ll make for pretty decorations, and the bonus is that they’re edible.
Bake Cookies
Don’t stop with candy. You can also decorate with cookies. Find a heart-shaped cookie cutter, slap together a simple dough, cut out hearts, and pop them in the oven.
Decorate them with red icing sugar for a more festive touch. Baking cookies at home reduces plastic packaging, and if you bake them with your partner or children, it allows you to spend quality time together.
Press Flowers
This makes for another fun project, just make sure you start in time. Depending on the type of flower, they can take anywhere from a few days to weeks to flatten and dry out. When they’re ready, use your pressed flowers to make cards, bookmarks, or even tote bags.
Have Fun with Gnomes
These little stuffed bearded gents are popping up everywhere, and they don’t need to be exclusive to Christmas.
Since they’re so popular, you’ll find them in shops and online, but you can make your own too using old socks and shirts. For their beards, you can use moss or pine needles instead of fake fur.
Add a Pop of Color
Work with what you have. If you don’t have the time or the budget to buy supplies and start crafting, you can do something as simple as using a red tablecloth or napkins or throwing a red or pink blanket over your bed.
Liven up your walls by sticking up photos. If you have enough photos, you can use them to spell out “love” or your and your partner’s initials.
MEET THE AUTHOR
Claudia Hauter is a South African writer, copy editor, and content creator with degrees in Drama and Anthropology. She works in television managing web content. When she isn’t reading or writing, she’s walking her dog, finding small businesses and markets to support, or attracting butterflies and bees with her vegetable garden. Learn from Claudia on Twitter or Instagram.