Burning Candles From Local Beeswax
Casper Candles is a candle company in Eugene, Oregon, that hand-makes candles out of local beeswax and cotton wicks. Stephen of Casper Candles gave me the lowdown on the difference between his candles and others made with paraffin, soy, or palm?
First off, beeswax: “Beeswax is simple,” he says,” It burns clean, many think it releases negative ions into the atmosphere? is drip resistant, and long burning. It burns a warm golden color, instead of the white flames of Paraffin and soy.” Plus the smell is naturally nice, requiring no additional chemicals for scent.
Reflecting on buying from local farmers and beekeepers, he explains: “It is wonderful to eat locally grown fruit and think that the same bee may have pollinated the flower, made the wax for my candle, and produced the honey for my toast. That is truly a closed sustainable loop.” Casper Candle wax is minimally processed, simply melted into blocks by the beekeepers.
Not all beeswax candles are so sustainable, unfortunately. Larger beeswax candle companies will import wax from all across the country or even overseas. “Much of this beeswax has been subject to bleaching and micro filtration which strips the wax of its color and delicate smell.”
The familiar paraffin wax candle is a by-product of petroleum fuel production, Stephen explains. Producing this kind of wax is toxic and energy consumptive. Once the paraffin is separated out from the crude, it is jet black, similar to roofing tar, and then is bleached to turn it the opaque colors we are familiar with. A cocktail of chemicals are added and it is shipped around from factory to factory in the process.
Once it reaches the candle-maker, even more chemicals, acids, and artificial scents are added. Not to mention that the employees in these candle factories are subject to harmful fumes.
“A paraffin candle may cost less to the consumer but what is its true cost to society?”
As for soy and palm wax, which are touted “natural” candle alternatives, these can be unsustainable products as well. These plants are usually grown as mono-culture crops, responsible for clearing hundreds of thousands of acres of native ecosystems, Stephen points out.
The crops have a high input of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides, which come from petroleum. For the plant oil to be processed into wax form, it must be taken to a facility using an energy-intensive process, requiring the addition of chemicals.
“The consumer of these types of ‘natural’ candles,” explains Stephen, “is fooled into believing they are making a wise environmental decision. Much of the world’s soy wax is produced by Cargil Corporation, an international mega-corporation.
As for Casper’s use of fiber wicks, Stephen explains, “Some candle companies use wicks with a metal core to control the burning rate. The metal used is traditionally zinc, and lead. Plastic is also used. These metals and plastics can be extremely toxic to ones health.”
So wax from local bees seems like the way to go for candles. Candles are an awesome way to add some light to the room and save electricity. Plus the light from fire feels so much more natural than electric light!
Sorry for all you folks who don’t live in Oregon, because Casper Candles avoids shipping far away. They keep their customers local. They hand deliver their candles, using no packing material, packaging or boxes. Maybe you should start talking to some beekeepers in your area and start your own sustainable candle company, modeled after Casper!
For people in Oregon, here is a list of markets and stores selling Casper Candles:
Portland:
Alberta Co-op, People’s Co-op, Food Front Co-op, New Renaissance Bookshop, Daily Market
Eugene:
Sundance Natural Foods, The Kiva, New Frontier Market, Red Barn Grocery, Capella Market, & Friendly Street Market. Eugene Saturday and Holiday Markets.
Corvallis:
First Alternative Co-op (South), First Alternative Co-op (North)
Salem:
Lifesource Natural Foods
Oregon Coast:
Salmonberry Naturals, Coos Head Natural Foods, Mothers Bandon, OR
Learn more about Casper Candle Co.
Tags: bee-wax, beeswax, candles, clean, ecosystem, local, misc, packaging, petroleum, plants, sustainable, toxic
Mar 06, 2008
I don’t understand: You’re promoting veganism and beeswax candles on the same page. The former eschews the abuse of animals; the latter exploits bees’ labor—killing some of them in the process—for profit. What’s up with that?
Mar 06, 2008
Terry: You’re right, the mass production of honey is definitely not good for the bees. They steal all the hives’ honey and replace it with ’sugar water’, and truck them around to pesticide-filled farms to pollinate.
However, locally produced honey collected from responsible small-scale beekeepers is not cruel to bees, from what I understand. I have met many beekeepers who love their bees as pets and will be extremely upset if something goes wrong with a hive. They leave enough honey for the bees and take only the extra, since bees produce much more honey than they need for the winter.
Without beekeepers, we would not have very much fruit at all. Beekeepers bring their bees to farms to pollinate fruits.
I only buy my honey at farmer’s markets, from local small-scale farmers/beekeepers who can tell me about their bees.
Mar 06, 2008
Eileen is correct – small “local” beekeepers DO NOT kill the bees in order to take honey and beeswax. People should not comment on things they know so little about. I am a beekeeper, and we take only what we need from the bees, leaving them with ample supplies for winter. To take more would force us to buy sugar syrup, which is expensive, and makes no sense, business-wise, or for our bees. Putting them at risk is not what we want to do.
Honeybees produce much more honey than they need, and they love to work. Beeswax is a by-product of extracting the honey, and candles made from beeswax are the ONLY candles on earth that are 100% soot-free, good for the air and your lungs, and save $ on electricity, plus is a renewable resource.
There are some great books on honeybees and beekeeping at your libraries, and videos (check out Tales from the Hive from Nova) to help folks understand bees and how we work with them. Please educate yourselves about these valuable insects who provide us with unbelievable products. And yes, insects pollinate 1/3 of our foods, with honeybees doing 90% of the pollinating. Without them, say goodbye to almonds, berries, watermelons, oranges, apples, cranberries, squash, cucumbers, etc.
Mar 07, 2008
Isn’t the ideal solution to simply stop buying candles all together?
I’m afraid I don’t know the stats behind the collection of beeswax, the manufacture of the candle, the promotion, packaging, shipping, retailing, etc, to know how they impact on the environment compared to a simple electric light, but I’d hazard a guess they aren’t too ec0-friendly when compared that way. (If anyone can provide evidence to support that they are I’d be really interested to see it, please, by the way.)
Aren’t candles just another consumable that’s become fashionable in recent years? One that we could easily do without, as we did for all those decades we didn’t need scented candles burning in our homes at every available opportunity?
Fashion is the least eco-friendly element of our society. People really should not buy eco-friendly consumables because they are labeled as eco-friendly, they should buy because they are needed. It’s very fashionable to buy eco-friendly. There’s a hell of a market, and profit, in it. What is actually needed, though, is for people not to buy more eco-friendly products, but simply to buy less of everything. We don’t need it. Really. Fancy, scented candles are way, way down on the list of life’s necessities.
Steve N Lee
author of eco-blog http://www.LionsledbySheep.com
and eco-suspense thriller ‘What if…?’
Mar 07, 2008
Steve N Lee– The use of candles is not a new fashion. Though you are right, it has become incredibly fashionable in the last couple of decades, and tons of petroleum-based artifically-scented candles have been produced, this does not mean we should eschew candles completely.
The use of candles dates back to thousands of years ago, before Christ even. Candles have always been used to light homes, to travel at night, and for ceremonies.
I use locally collected and molded beeswax candles for light in place of electricity, and to me it’s an eco choice as well as a calming, enjoyable light compared with electric light.
I’m also interested in making vegetable oil lamps for a source of non-electric light.
Mar 07, 2008
Thanks for writing such a nice article, Eileen & to all those who wrote in with comments.
Gotta go! Tapers to dip!…
Stephen
Casper Candles
Mar 09, 2008
Congratulations to Casper Candle Company for incorporating ecology into your business. The casper candles can be used to reduce electric light consumption.
Wall mounts to place your candles on are a nice way to spread out the light and start eating dinner, for example, with only candle light.
I want to respond to the following by Steve N.
“to know how they impact on the environment compared to a simple electric light, but I’d hazard a guess they aren’t too ec0-friendly when compared that way. (If anyone can provide evidence to support that they are I’d be really interested to see it, please, by the way.)”
here is your evidence.
The simple electric light…..
The hydropower dams on the Columbia and Snake Rivers, where your power in Eugene comes from, are extincting native runs of anadromous salmon. You should probably know that this will be a direct violation of dozens of native american treaty rights whom have the right to harvest salmon in perpetuity. This is no small deal. Tremendous economic damage lingers for Idaho as the Snake River salmon have been a huge tourist attraction for many small towns there. Loss of genetic diversity, loss of cultural identidy, loss of nutrient transportation between ocean and land. You could go on for a long time about the massive ecological damage directly resulting from dams that provide everyone’s “simple electric light.”
Guess where else our electricity comes from? Burning of coal. 57% of the electricity in the U.S. is from coal. Coal is a greenhouse gas. One way to send us past a unrecoverable Global Warming tipping point is to burn more coal.
As for the production of beeswax candles, read the article.
From your posting about fancy scented candles, promotion, packaging, retailing, blah blah blah, it seems you didn’t even read it.
Nov 02, 2008
WoW! Stepen…You should feel very luckey to be living in Eugene, Ore. My job took me out of the Eugene area over 20 years ago to the Dakotas. One of my favorite things to do every year at Christmas time has been to share some of what Oregon ( the Eugene area) has to offer to my friends,family and co-workers . This year was going to be beeswax candles! However because you want to keep Casper candles “local” you can do just that. I will purchase from another beeswax candle company within the state. I have for the past 20 years promoted the Eugene,Oregon area along with expressing the artisit talent and places to shop . I know that I will make sure Casper candles is not on my list. Just to let you know that we do have bee keepers here in the Dakotas and I do in fact like to share local Dakota products with friends and family back in Oregon.
Nov 02, 2008
Hi Tami,
Thanks for you comments. If you do end up making it out to Eugene in the next couple months we will be set up at the Eugene Holiday Market (http://www.holidaymarket.org/)
in booth number 233. It’s a fine affair with hundreds of local artisans, music and great food.
Keep em’ Burnin’,
Stephen
CasperCandleCo
Jan 03, 2009
Hello Everyone!
I just came, very after-the-fact, to this blog. Very interesting and close to my heart, too. I make pure beeswax candles from a local wax source for my tiny shop in Gore’s Landing, Ontario, Canada. I have been involved in the environmental movement for over 40 years and live as sustainably as I can while offering sustainable alternatives for everyday living in my shop and website (www.smallbones.ca). I grappled with the vegan aspect of beeswax until learning that my source is like those mentioned above — no harm to the bees or the environment.