Super Eco

Photo credit: SXC

Candles: a romantic, softly-fluttering flame, perfect to bring warmth and light to your cold winter evening. But don't do it. I mean it! Step away from the Glade, right now. You know what I'm talking about: this time of year they're in every magazine, in commercials everywhere. Scented candles. Colorful candles. We give them as gifts, and breathe in their scents when we light them. But do you know what you're breathing?

Most commercially-available candles are made from paraffin. Mmm...paraffin...what's that? Paraffin is the stuff left over, rejected, at the bottom of the petroleum barrel after all the "good stuff" has been siphoned off to use to make gasoline, motor oil, and other stuff. Mix it with a little industrial strength bleach to make it nice and white, toss in some stearic acid and stuff-that-makes-it-smell-good, and you have a candle. Sound delicious? Mmm hmm. And hey, you know that black sooty stuff that you get on the candle holder after you burn a candle? That's what you're breathing. And do you know where a candle "goes" when you burn it? Into the air. That you're breathing.

*cough*

So what can you do? You've got two options: bees and soy.

Beeswax candles have a fabulous natural scent and are long-burning and clean-burning. I've even made my own (easy! get beeswax in bulk, melt it in an empty can in a pan of water, do repeated dippings with some pure cotton wicking—you don't want the kind with metal inside—and you have a candle. Ta da!)

Soy candles are made from soy and veggies, both renewable resources. They're also clean-burning, totally vegan, and the wax is biodegradable. And of course you can make your own but they're also widely available.

So go light a candle now. And breathe easy.