Big Green Purse

Six Ways to Green Your Valentine's Day

Here at Big Green Purse, we love love. So naturally, Valentine's Day is one of our favorite days of the year.

As it turns out, it also presents one of the best opportunities to shift your spending to greener goods. Of the billions of dollars spent on Valentine's Day gifts every year, more than a third are spent on flowers.  As beautiful as they may be, conventionally-grown cut flowers are usually doused with toxic pesticides that are damaging to people as well as the environment.

Solution?

• If you're planning to give a bouquet of classic red roses, order organically grown flowers to avoid those harmful chemicals.  Plenty of businesses offer organic roses as well as other flowers. 
• Choose flowers and greens grown locally. 
Your gift will leave a smaller carbon footprint than a bouquet that was flown in from South America or another tropical clime.  Visit Local Harvest to locate the flower grower nearest to you.
• Forage your own blooms.  Spend your money on a reusable vase rather than throwaway flowers, then fill it with holly branches, red twig dogwood, pine boughs, dried hydrangea blooms, cattails, or whatever else you can find in your yard. Garnish with a re-usable red ribbon.
• Give a potted plant instead of cut flowers.  The live plant acts as a mini carbon sink, and will last longer longer than any cut bouquet. Focus on plants that are particularly good at purifying indoor air, like chinese evergreens, spider plants, and peace lilies. 
• Make a basket.  Stock a garden basket with an assortment of flower seeds, a trowel, some gardening gloves, and maybe a new pair of clippers. In the spring, help your beloved sow the seeds, then enjoy the blooms all summer long.
• Dish up some bulbs. Fill a shallow bowl with small pebbles; place five or six narcissus bulbs on top. The bulbs will begin to grow as soon as they're watered; in six weeks, they'll have sprouted beautiful foliage and fragrant blooms that keep Valentine's Day alive long past Feb. 14.

Where's the chocolate, you ask?  Right here!

(Image credit)

Eco-Friendly Greeting Cards

Sending electronic greeting cards is definitely the greenest way to go, but there are times when nothing will do but an "old fashioned" paper card.  Fortunately, you have a nice variety of environmentally-friendly choices. 

Recycled Paper:

When buying paper cards, search out options made from recycled paper printed with soy-based inks. Ideally, the card would be made from 100 percent post-consumer waste. Look for specific recycled content on the back of the card, not just the recycling symbol, which could simply mean the card is recyclable. Also look for cards made from bamboo, elephant dung (no kidding!) and other kinds of paper-free materials.

Tiny Prints cards are made from 30 percent post consumer waste or paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. 

Hallmark's Shoebox line is printed on recycled paper, but only with a minimum of 20 percent recycled fiber - not a standout in the recycled card line, but better than no recycled content if you don't have another choice. Cards from environmental groups like the Sierra Club are also made from recycled paper with soy-based ink.

Some cards are so eco-friendly, you can plant them. Green Field Paper makes cards embedded with seeds so the recipient can plant them. The company also offers cards made from junk mail, garlic paper, and coffee chaff. Peaceful Valley sells a boxed set of eight "plantable" cards.  

Hallmark's Business Expressions Line uses paper made with 50 percent sugarcane by-products and 50 percent recycled paper content. "No new trees have been cut down to make these cards," claims the company.

Returnable Cards:

Then there are cards, like the National Wildlife Federation's Zero-Waste line, that are designed to be  returned so they can be recycled into a new card. Each envelope includes an integrated postage paid method to make it easy to return; materials are made from certified non-toxic plastic and printed with healthy UV cured inks.

Postcards:

Zazzle and many other "u print" companies let you customize your own postcards, but they're usually not printed on recycled paper or with soy-based ink. The only advantage to using a postcard is that it skips the envelope (and postage will be a bit cheaper).

Make Your Own:

If you can't find a card you like among these, why not make your own? It's easy to find recycled paper at any office supply store. Use non-toxic markers and crayons to personalize a design on one side of an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet, then fold it into thirds, tape the top closed, and write the address on the blank outside. No envelope necessary! Or, rather than buy paper new, recycle wrapping or cards you've received in the past. My mother and her cousin have sent the same card back-and-forth to each other for years, in a tradition that makes both of them laugh when they send and receive the card.

Recycle and Reuse:

I do try to make the most out of every card I receive. If it's a postcard, it eventually ends up in my recycling bin. If it's a regular greeting card, I often cut the card in half, recycle the signed part, and re-use the decorated part as a gift tag - it works like a charm.

If greeting cards have got you thinking about gift wrapping, check out theseenvironmental wrapping tips. 

Fill Your Heart with Organic Chocolate

Any day is a good day to eat chocolate as far as I'm concerned. But on no day is it so special as on Valentine's Day, when heart-shaped boxes full of cocoa-based delicacies can keep people (well, me) happy pretty much all day.

That's particularly true if the cocoa is produced organically. Cocoa powder is derived from cacao seeds that grow in pods on the cacao tree. The tree's botanical name, Theobroma cacao, means "food of the gods," nomenclature with which I wholeheartedly agree. Cocoa "beans" are only called that once they're removed from the tree. What does any of this have to do with the environment? The cacao tree grows in the rainforest. Ideally, cacao trees will be grown on small farms, in the shade, to keep rainforests intact and reduce pesticide use. 

Even better is organic cocoa that is also produced according to Fair Trade principles, ensuring that farmers are paid a decent wage for their work and no child labor is involved. In countries like Cote d'Ivoire in West Africa, children are being used like slaves to produce cocoa, with profits going to fund the country's civil war.

Online, at natural foods stores and food coops, and increasingly at local grocery stores, you can find organic, fair trade cocoa and chocolate. Here are some brands to look for:

* Dagoba

* Divine Milk Chocolate

* Endangered Species Organic Chocolate

* Equal Exchange

* Green & Black's

* Theo

*  Alter Eco

But which of these tastes best?

I asked the moms over at Green Moms Carnival for their faves. Here's what they recommend:

 Jenn Savedge, aka jenn@thegreenparent.com, says, "My all time favorite is IgnaFire (www.ignafire.com) They make an unprocessed chocolate that is out of this world. Honestly, there is so much flavor and texture in one bite of this stuff that it really takes the whole chocolate eating experience to a new level! I also love that their packaging is waste-free."

Jess Trevelyan, who blogs at The Green Phone Booth, raves, "I love Divine first and foremost for the flavor (both dark and milk).But also cause the HQ is here in DC so I can support a local business."
Jess

Lynn Miller of OrganicMania.com, has her favorite, too. "Diane, I love Green & Black's and Divine. Divine is fair trade from Ghana and is based here in DC. Blacks is often on sale at places like Giant (yay!).

Anna over at www.green-talk.com, did some serious research on the subject. "I went to the NYC chocolate fair this year and reviewed many of the organic chocolates," she reports. "I preferred dark chocolate with about 70-85 percent cacao. What I liked about the show is that the chocolate was not all
offered at your local health food shops or was not made into bars. See the bark one or toffee one. I especially liked the foodie chocolate where it was infused with an herb or food ingredient. Try rosemary and chocolate some time. It is amazing." See Anna's articles, including "Organic Chocolate Never Tasted So Good."

But be careful, warns Anna. "Just so you know, eating all that chocolate made me happy, but sick to my stomach in the end."

 

Got an organic or fair trade chocolate you love? Let us know!

Green Coupons Make Eco-Shopping Cheap

Whether you're wrapping up your holiday shopping or browsing for general household goods, take advantage of online coupons to save you big bucks on green gear for yourself, family and friends.

These three blogs specialize in linking to coupons for green products and services. NOTE: not every item on every site will be "green." Read product descriptions before you buy to avoid greenwashing (yes, it even happens with coupons! See "organiccoupons.com," below).

GreenCouponCodes - This site is very easy to use. Every entry offers the same practical information: an overview of the product, the discount offered (highlighted in bright red ink), shipping information, and an easy click through to the product itself. You'll find a wide variety of items in categories that include health and beauty, organic garden, personal finance, batteries, and light bulbs. The only coupon category that didn't make sense to me was "auto." The promo promises coupons for "green auto parts at Juiced Hybrid," but I could never access that particular site.

Pristine Planet - Whether you're looking for divine organic chocolates, organic cotton baby gear, holiday candles or gourmet gift baskets, you should be able to find a discount coupon at Pristine Planet. Many merchants listed here - like Gifts for the Garden and EcoHomeGear, offer discounts as high as 20%.

EcoBunga - EcoBunga calls itself the guide to "green giveaways and deals," so look not just for discounts but freebies, too. Sweepstakes and contests offer everything from EMX Race Bikes (hmm... I guess that's "green" - better than racing a car?!), to adventures to exotic natural habitats, to things more mundane but perhaps more essential: BPA-free baby bottles. On the coupon side, recent promotions included a $10 discount on Seventh Generation chlorine-free diapers, and 40% off Pangea Organics Holiday Gift Boxes.

Mambo Sprouts is another online coupon resource, offering printable coupons from the web as well as coupon books. Recent offerings included $1 off a package of Equal Exchange  Fair Trade Coffee and $1 off Bio-Kleen eco-friendly cleaning products.

NOTE: Beware a site called OrganicCoupons. Despite the name, it doesn't seem to focus much on organics. Recent promotions included a trip to NBC's Universal Studios, discounts for Omaha Steaks, and a price break on "a fantastic mid-size SUV." Those sure don't sound like organic options to me.

Green Holiday Wrapping Can be Reused, Recycled - and Free

I love surprises, so using some kind of wrapping adds to the fun of giving the present. Otherwise, why not just throw the gift at the giftee and say, "Hope you like it!"

What I hate is seeing so much beautiful paper just being ripped up and tossed aside. Honestly, these days, it's a little embarrassing to put bags full of ripped up paper out on the curb for trash pick-up. And I just can't get beyond the fact that making paper is one of the most polluting industries on earth. The less I use, the better.

Hence, my list of green wrapping paper alternatives:

Reusable cloth bag These Envirosax bags are really beautiful and can be used all year long. $7.95 - $8.50 Bring It in a Bag bags also make wonderful holiday wraps.

Reusable shopping bag - $.99 at almost any grocery store

Holiday gift bags – free;  reused from gifts people have given me

Homemade gift bags - the price of fabric (free if you reuse what you already have); my neighbor makes gift bags of all sizes from beautiful but inexpensive holiday fabric she buys at the local craft store. Use pinking shears to give the top edge some flair after you sew the other three sides together, then bunch the top and tie with a reusable ribbon.

Reused gift wrap – free (I “capture” it as it’s coming off the present, fold it up, and put it in a box so I can easily find and reuse it next year)

New recycled gift wrap - Pristine Planet offers recycled, recylable paper online (see Reindeer paper, right). If you're buying when you're at the mall, ask the sales clerk for the most eco-friendly option they sell.

Kitchen towels - ideally, made from organic cotton, but anything reusable is a good choice

Scarves - rather than wrap an entire box, tie a decorative scarf around the box and attach a tag made from a recycled gift card

Sunday comics - free

As for gift tags, reuse last year's holiday cards. Cut off the card that has the signature, thread a ribbon through a corner of the remaining card, and voila! 

One caveat about any kind of printed wrapping paper: the inks and foils used in wrapping paper may contain chemicals that become toxic when burned. If you can't reuse the paper, don't burn it: recycle it.

Free (Mostly Eco) Holiday Gifts To Keep Your Christmas Green

Even though a "green Christmas" means you're cutting way back on gift-giving this year, you may still want to give friends and family members some token of your love and appreciation. Consider these earth-friendly options that won't break your bank. They'll help simplify your holidays, too.

Your time!

* Give friends or family with small children at home a gift certificate for three hours of free babysitting they can redeem any time.

* For friends who like to garden, offer to help them weed in the spring.

* If you have particular electronics expertise, donate a few hours of training or support.

* Offer to make supper on a school night when parents can get frazzled and kids cranky if dinner’s not ready on time.

Pictures and memories

* Create a scrapbook of favorite memories or heirloom photos.

* Beautifully frame meaningful photographs.

* Make your own calendar illustrated with photos of family and friends.

* Take everyone to your favorite museum on its "free" night; organize a hike to a beautiful spot; get back to Nature -- even in the winter -- with an afternoon at your local botanic garden (if you get cold, dash into the greenhouse!)

Play games

* Invite friends and family to game night. Play your favorite game, pick up something new at the local thrift shop, or play charades for free. Set up game tables so you can have several games involving lots of people going on at once.

* Food and Games: Ask everyone to bring their favorite game along with their favorite dish. Play a game during appetizers, after the main course, and again after dessert.