I am very fond of burning candles and have recently started investigating candles which are more eco-friendly.
Most candles are made from paraffin wax which is a derivative of the petroleum industry. This is obviously non-renewable, unless you want to wait for several million years, and the global environmental impact on the world is well documented.
The Oil Palm is grown as a commercial crop in Malaysia and used to produce (for example) cooking oil, confectionery, margarines and creamers. It is therefore a renewable resource and a non-genetically modified crop.
Palm wax is much cleaner burning than paraffin wax and produces much less soot and potentially harmful emissions.The cancles also burn for longer with a whiter flame.
About 80% of palm oil is used for food applications - the rest being for non-food products such as candles, lotions, body oils, shampoos, skin care products, rubber and cleaning products.
I believe it is possible to make palm oil based bio-diesel.
Thursday, 16 October 2008
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1 comments:
Hi Lori,
what really annoys me is that when you buy candles, you don't know what they are made of, so it's hard to buy healthy, sustainable candles.
Other sustainable materials are soy wax and beeswax. The smell of beeswax candles is the best ever; no need for added synthetic fragrances.
I think it should be the law for candle manufacturers to provide an ingredients list with their candles, so people know what they're buying.
Christiane
www.cosmicStore.co.uk
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