RECYCLING CANDLE WAX – The Sands Thinking Green

For anyone why has been looking for a way to reuse ‘waste’ candle wax easily here is an idea for you.

We use it to make beach candles, You will need old wax and old poster rolls for recycling. (any size works)

In the past we used more candles at The Sands at Nomad and The Nomad Beach Bar, and as a result we found we had a lot of candle remains which could not be used. (Photo below)

In most hotels or restaurants wax like this would be thrown out with the trash.. where it would end up polluting three out of the four Elements that are vital for life on this planet. The Air (wax fumes are Carcinogenic), the Earth and the Water in the ground.

Considering that wax is flammable it would also be a waste to throw out a perfectly usable fuel source.

So..

Take the candle left overs, heat them in a large safely secured saucepan in a well ventilated outdoor area. In case of a wax spill it helps to be in a sandy area.

The wax will begin to melt. Make sure your fire is not too big as the flames over the rim of the saucepan could ignite the wax gas. If this happens cover with a lid or a wet cloth to put it out.

Once the wax has melted all the bits of wick string and any sand or dirt will have sunk to the bottom of the saucepan.

Take the cardboard poster roll/tube (cardboard is important as this becomes the wick for your recycled candle), make sure one end is plugged tightly and rested on the ground. It will need to be standing up as shown in the photo below.

Using a jug or a repurposed container gently scoop and pour a small amount of wax into the tube. Stop for a while as the first wax cools and solidifies a little to help plug the base of the roll/tube.

Do not try to move the tube when it is full of hot wax as it may pour or explode out of the base of the tube. The tube needs to be fixed standing in place for the next few hours.

Fill the tube with as much melted wax as you can then let it cool so that the wax solidifies. Once this is done you now have an outdoor candle.

To light the recycled candle it hold one end over an open fire, do this in a well ventilated area with a sandy floor. A little of the wax may melt out into the fire which is ok.

Once the cardboard tube begins to catch fire at the end stand the candle up and bury the other end in the ground or in our case, on the beach for the Nomad Full Moon Beach dinner.

Another option for recycling candle wax is to melt it and use it to fill repurposed glasses or jars like the one above to make the more known type of candle. Note you will need to make a ‘wick’ for these candles but any string will work. Use cocktail sticks or sticks to keep the Wick straight as the wax hardens around it. The wick needs to be in the centre of glass jars and glasses otherwise the heat will crack the glass.

The more sustainable path would be to find alternatives to the toxic paraffin wax candles to reduce or remove it completely from the system.