The Environmental Cost of Valentine’s Flowers

Roses are a universal symbol of romance. This year, around 224 million roses are grown specifically for Valentine’s Day, which accounts for 30 percent of annual cut-flower sales, surpassing Mother’s Day and the holiday season. 

Valentine’s flowers are relatively easy to obtain, even if you wait till the last minute. They are available at almost every local grocery store. But such convenience comes with large costs. 

The intricate and lengthy journey these flowers undergo from the greenhouse to local stores and then to your lover’s hands is associated with huge environmental costs due to mass production and substantial emissions from air shipping. 

As stated by the Sustainable Floristry Network, modern floristry can be unsustainable in many ways, particularly by excess packaging and harmful chemicals.

First, to keep the flowers fresh, florists have been using plastic floral foam since the 1960s, additionally with wraps, ribbons, bags, and vessels. These materials combined far exceed what florists need for packaging, leading to excessive plastic waste that harms the environment. Meanwhile, the foams could also leach the water supply, causing microplastic pollution in waterways. 

Moreover, florists widely used pesticides to protect crops against pests. And some of these pesticides are very harmful to the health of those who work in agricultural settings. Since most of the Valentine’s flowers are imported from foreign countries, these flowers must be treated with fungicides to prevent foreign microbes from affecting domestic agriculture. 

The National Retail Federation estimates that Americans will spend $2.6 billion on Valentine’s Day flowers this year, and The Society of American Florists states that 250 million roses were produced for the holiday. The Washington Post reports that 80 percent of these roses were imported from Colombia, Ecuador and the Netherlands, and weeks prior to Feb. 14, over 30 flights were transporting flowers from Colombia to Miami every day. 

The senior aviation researcher, Brandon Graver, shares with The New York Times that transporting Valentine’s flowers from Colombia alone burns 114 million liters of fuel and emits 360,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide. 

The environmental cost multiplies when the industry is global. Today, the floricultural industry is a $36 billion global industry, and flights filled with flowers fly around the globe every day. 

There are ways for the industry and customers to reduce the environmental impacts. 

The first is to diversify the energy sources. This is particularly crucial for the Netherlands, which is the world’s largest exporter of cut flowers. In the Netherlands, the majority of greenhouses are powered by fossil fuels and electricity; however, recently, the Dutch government has claimed to reduce its emissions from these greenhouses. 

Second, the industry needs to rely less on air freight. Shipping flowers by sea can reduce emissions substantially while keeping the flowers fresh. 

Lastly, customers play a crucial role in sustainable shopping, too. Debra Prinzing started the “Slow Flowers movement” in 2013 after publishing her book, “Slow Flowers: Four Seasons of Locally Grown Bouquets From the Garden, Meadow and Farm.” The main idea is to encourage people to buy in-season flowers from small growers in the area, though most of them won’t be roses. A number of programs in Colombia and Ecuador are also making environmental progress by identifying flowers grown by farms that meet local environmental standards. 

It is convenient to grab a plastic-wrapped bouquet from a local grocery store for your loved ones. But romance isn’t limited to a bouquet of roses. It is time to get creative and make more sustainable gift choices for the greater good.