Valentine’s Day by the numbers...
It is estimated that $18.2 billion dollars will be spent on Valentine’s Day.
180 million cards will be purchased. Be sure to purchase a card made from post-consumer recycled product. These cards can then be saved for art projects or can be recycled along with the rest of your mixed paper.
36 million heart shaped boxes of candy will be given. Those heart shaped boxes are generally made of mixed materials which makes recycling not only difficult but expensive.
750,000,000 Hershey Kisses are made for Valentine’s Day. The aluminum foil packaging is 100% recyclable. Yay Hershey!
110 million roses will be sold. Cellophane wrappers around flower bouquets can be saved and reused as wrapping paper, gift bag stuffing or scrapbooking material.
$4 billion dollars will be spent on jewelry. My favorite piece of jewelry, other than my wedding ring, is the noodle necklace my son made in the 2nd grade. He’s 26 now and I still have that necklace in my jewelry box. My point is if you’re going to purchase jewelry, make sure it can stand the test of time. Even better - look for vintage and put reuse to use!
9 million proposals are estimated to be made on Valentine’s Day. Awww! That’s a lot of love and no way we want to reduce, reuse or recycle a marriage proposal!!! Let’s leave this one alone!
There are many legends and theories about how Valentine’s Day came to be a day for love, but most scholars agree that it was in 1381-1382 that Geoffrey Chaucer made reference to and romanticized it being a time to meet your mate in his writings, The Parliament of Fowls. Loosely interpreted here:
For this was on Saint Valentine’s day, When every fowl comes there his mate to take, Of every species that men know, I say, And then so huge a crowd did they make, That earth and sea, and tree, and every lake was so full, that there was scarecely space for me to stand, so full was all the place.
May love find you today and every day.