Many people are doing more and more in their lives to be a little more environmentally friendly. From recycling to looking for ways to use less fuel by combining errands into one trip, there are plenty of things you can do to try and lessen your environmental impact.
Believe it or not, the candles you buy and the light in your home can also be a part of it.
When buying soy scented candles, you have two choices – regular (paraffin) wax or soy wax. If you want it to be greener, look for the "soy" label. Here's a look at the reasons for that.
Wax material
Do you know what paraffin wax is made of? Paraffin is a petroleum product and, as you know, there is very little oil on the planet. That's why gas prices are still very high.
Transport
If you buy paraffin wax, the oil for this wax most likely came from the other side and traveled the world to get here, with more resources being used to steer these ships, trains, and trucks. The United States, meanwhile, is full of soybeans, which means fewer resources are used to deliver materials to factories because factories are nearby.
Waste
Another thing to keep in mind is the wax residue. In the end, you have to get rid of the wax residue, right? Well, if you throw away some of the paraffin wax, you're adding an oil product to the landfill.
Petroleum products do not degrade like soy wax, meaning they will spend many more years in landfills than rotting and returning to the ground.