What to Do With Leftover Candle Wax: 8 Sustainable Ideas

Do you enjoy candles, but you don’t know what to do with the leftover candle wax? Check out our nine sustainable upcycling eight for leftover candle wax.

1. Make a New Candle From Leftover Wax

Do you enjoy candles and don’t know what to do with leftover candle wax – why not try making your own candles from leftovers? Making candles at home isn’t hard. You melt the leftover candle wax in a hot water bath and make a wick (for example by using old laces). Then you place the wick in a container such as a glass jar and pour the liquid wax into the container. Alternatively, you can use the pulling method, where you repeatedly dip the wick into the container with hot wax.

2. Turn Candle Wax Into a Fire Starter

If there are also wood shavings available to you, another good candle wax hack is to make a natural fire starter. 

Here’s how you do it:

1. Melt the leftover candle wax in a water bath until it softens and gets a malleable texture.
2. Mix the soft candle wax with wood shavings.
3. Spoon the mix into filter bags.
4. Twist the filter bags shut.

You don’t have to use filter bags to make the fire starter. You can also add them to empty egg cartons if you haven’t already used all of them for other Egg Carton Crafts. To use a fire starter, place it close to the wood or the coals and light with a match or lighter.

3. Use Leftover Wax to Paint Easter Eggs

Do you like to dye Easter eggs and want them to become little artworks? Then this tip is for you:

1. Hard boil the eggs.
2. Melt the leftover candle wax.
3. Use the melted candle wax to paint a pattern on the eggs. This is best done with a fine brush.
4. Dye the easter eggs in a cold or lukewarm dye bath. A dye bath is a container filled with water and dyes. For example, you can use a cooking pot. Fill the container with cold or lukewarm water. Add the dye. You don’t have to buy artificial dyes from the supermarket because you can easily make organic Easter egg dyes at home. The method doesn’t work if the water is too hot since the wax will melt and come off the eggs.
5. Take the eggs out of the dye bath.

The dye can’t reach the areas covered by the wax, resulting in a pretty pattern on your dyed eggs.

4. What to Do With Leftover Candle Wax: Loosen Stuck Zippers

Do you have a jacket, dress or bag with a stuck zipper? Here’s another idea of what to do with leftover candle wax:

1. Rub a bit of cold wax on both sides of the zipper teeth. Do not touch the adjacent fabric to avoid staining.
2. Move the pull tab a few times up and down.
3. Enjoy a zipper that runs smoothly again.

This idea works well with all kinds of clothes and bags. Using non-colored candle wax decreases the risk of accidentally staining your items. However, you might not want to try this technique with expensive items since the risk of staining cannot be totally excluded.

Tip: Don’t worry if you have accidentally stained your clothes. There are several good methods of getting candle wax out of your clothes.

5. Plugging Leaks With Old Candle Wax

Plugging leaks in windows and doors is another good use for leftover candle wax you might want to consider. It is an easy way to prevent heat from escaping the house meaning that you have to heat less. However, this is only a temporary solution until you’re able to properly fix the window or door.

This is how you do it:

• Warm up the wax to make it more malleable. Ideally, the consistency of the wax should be close to play dough. Try kneading the wax lightly in your hand to warm up the wax naturally. If you find that this doesn’t work, you can also put the leftover wax in a little bowl and place it on the heater. Make sure to check regularly if the wax is already malleable enough. You don’t want it to melt, but you want it to be soft enough that you can change its shape to plug the leak.
• Now it’s time to plug the leak. Start by forming the wax into the right shape with your hands. You want the wax to cover a larger area than the leak in order to completely cover it. When the wax has the right shape place it onto the leak.
• Use your fingers to lightly press the wax onto the edges of the leak. Apply just enough pressure to make it stick. Especially when plugging a leaky window, don’t press too hard so that the glass doesn’t break. Plugging leaks with old candle wax is just a temporary solution, so be sure to get it properly fixed later on.

6. Reusable Food Wraps Made of Leftover Wax

If your candle is made out of beeswax or natural soy wax, you can use the leftover candle wax to make reusable food wraps. All you need for this method is:

• Leftover candle wax
• Square cut from the fabric of your choice
• Baking tray
• Two sheets of parchment paper

Follow these simple steps:

1. Take a square cut from the fabric of your choice and put in on a baking tray covered with parchment paper.
2. Grate the leftover candle wax into small pieces and spread it evenly on the fabric. Make sure that the entire fabric is covered.
3. Now cover the fabric with the wax on it with the other sheet of parchment paper.
4. Iron over the parchment paper until the wax melts and soaks into the fabric.
5. Pick up the fabric and shake it softly in the air until it’s cooled down and the wax solidified. This doesn’t take longer than a minute or two. Be careful not too burn yourself when picking up the fabric.

You can use the reusable food wraps instead of plastic bags or plastic wraps. If they get a little bit dirty, you can wipe them with a damp cloth. In principle, you can reuse them as many times as you like. However, if the wax comes off or they catch a bad smell, you don’t have to throw them away. Simply repeat the process described above, adding new wax if needed. The heat of the iron will kill germs and remove bad smells.

7. Use Wax to Stop a Door From Squeaking

Another great use of leftover candle wax is to stop doors from squeaking. This is how you do it:

1. Take the door off its hinges.
2. Thoroughly rub the candle wax on the hinges. Focus on the areas where the part of the hinge attached to the door touches the part of the hinge attached to door frame. You don’t have to warm up the wax before rubbing it onto the hinges.

The reason why doors squeak is that different parts of the hinge rub against each others. The wax coats them and will do away with the squeaking. You might have to repeat the procedure after some time when the door starts squeaking again.

8. What to Do With Leftover Candle Wax: Prevent Mold in the Shower

Last but not least another great use of old candle wax is to keep your shower grout clean. This is how you do it:

1. Thoroughly clean the shower.
2. Rub down the grout between the tiles with the leftover candle wax. 

The wax will protect your shower grout and prevent mold from growing.

How to Dispose of Wax

If you don’t want to reuse the leftover candle wax, make sure to dispose of it in the right way:

1. If the wax is attached to a reusable or recyclable candle container remove the candle wax form the candle container. 
2. Throw the wax in the regular trash, since it is not recyclable. 
3. Don’t pour hot wax down the sink. The wax will quickly solidify and block the sink.

We also recommend you to choose only candles made out of sustainable wax to avoid excess waste:

• Most candles are made out of paraffin wax are not eco-friendly, as the wax is derived from crude oil.
• Soy wax candles are preferable to paraffin wax as they do not come from crude oil. However, they are connected with the soybean industry which is criticized for their use of pesticides and their link to the deforestation of rain forests.
• We recommend using candles made out of organic wax such as beeswax and coconut wax candles.

Read on:

• How to Prevent and Fix Candle Tunneling
• How to Reuse Candle Jars: 7 Fun Ideas
• Making Scented Candles At Home: A DIY Guide

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Tags: DIY Guide Waste