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Even if you're eco-willing, sometimes it helps to shed some light on why we choose certain products over others, such as soy candles versus regular ol' wax. I've heard that soy is better, but it's also not cheap. So if you want to light your home with eco-friendly candles, here's what to look for.
- First, shop for soy and beeswax candles, which burn
cleaner and longer than standard parrafin wax and are mostly soot-free. - Unlike petroleum-based waxes, soy and beeswax candles are made from renewable resources. Even better if the soy is grown without pesticides.
- The best candles are 100 percent soy or beeswax or a blend. Palm oil wax is also acceptable.
- In addition, look for candles with all-cotton wicks, such as this Timothy Han Fig Candle ($58).
- Sniff out scented candles with natural fragrances, not synthetic ones that are potentially toxic.
Converse
CNC Costume National
Serfontaine
$58 for a candle?!
1I love soy candles...they burn so much nicer.
2It's amazing how much nicer soy & beeswax burn.
3I just read another article on this same site about how Orangutans are going extinct because of palm oil farming. And this one suggests palm oil candles? Want to be green? Don't buy candles... or anything you don't need.
485-90 percent of all soy comes from genetically modified soy, which is modified to withstand more petrochemical pesticides/herbicides. Most of the petrochemical herbicides cause cancer in humans and other animals because of the chemicals from which they are made. Because of this, and because soy grown with the organic method should be preserved for food only, I buy and strongly recommend bees wax, which does burn cleanly and is worthy of the price paid to protect our health and the environment...and does not increase global warming at the same rate as using those made from or grown with petrochemicals.
5So, exactly who decided this was eco-friendly? Marketing is amazing - and it is so hip to see the feel-good 'eco' wordlet on anything. How 1968! Seems like eco-friendly would avoid unnecessary transport (notice the candle is from London - takes a lot of carbon emitting machinery that runs on fossil fuels to get something from England to America), not to mention all the machinery and chemicals and processing to grow, harvest and extract or produce the wax from the genetically engineered soybeans. THEN there is also the glass...more machinery, oil and chemicals there...and the cotton wicks - cotton - which has to be grown, harvested and processed, using machinery, oil and gas, chemicals...and it continues. THEN, $58 for a candle... so if you work for $10 an hour, you have to work an entire day to net that....to buy a candle...which, I guess will be useful when you can no longer afford to pay your power bill because you're trying to be green and burn a ridiculous candle. Of course, now you have a problem with things like all the green groceries in your fridge - no power. (not for long, though - and they will make great compost!) Your house is now hot...if you have a well, you can't get water - no power...and your wired-in fire alarm/smoke detector won't work - no power...so when you pass out from heat exhaustion in your now dimly lit, hot house, you won't know that your $58 green candle set your drapes on fire...but that wouldn't have helped, since your water well can no longer pump up the water to put out the fire. Wow. All that from a $58 green candle. You want green? You're gonna need a BUNCH of green for all the overpriced, hyped up 'green' stuff on the market now...which is anything but! Of course, the target market is the group driving suburbans and buying carbon credits! Silly silly silly! One more thought or question, actually....once one changes to all this green technology, how does one deal with the TONS of waste produced by tossing all the old stuff out? Recycling all of it is not an option where we live. Burning it produces the dreaded carbon. Perhaps we will just keep on keeping on and wait for people to wake up! Eco friendly doesn't seem terribly friendly at all!
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