It was a labor of love.
Last year, we decided to start collecting used Old Pine Candle Co. jars. To be honest, we didn't know at the time what we would do with them, we just knew environmental sustainability had risen to the top of our company's values and as part of that, we wanted to divert waste from the landfill. Sure, our jars are recyclable glass, and yes, we share how-to's for cleaning them and do promos on social media for people who reuse them. But we knew those were only small efforts to keep Old Pine jars from ending up the trash.
So we and two gracious stockists, Perfect Petal Boutique in Denver and Nellybelle General Store in Evergreen, began giving credit toward new candles in exchange for old jars. Every time an old Old Pine Candle Co. jar came back to us with only a bit of melted wax at the bottom, we were warmed by our community's efforts. They started piling up and we waited for them to let us know what they were to be in their second life.
The answer emerged: recycled candles. We weren't sure if it would really work. It takes time to clean jars, would that be worth it? And then what? Do we fill them with our existing Old Pine Candle Co. scents, or something different?
We took a team building day to find out. We melted and emptied the wax (which was full of soot, but thankfully a local fellow maker recycles it). We used a lot of soapy water and elbow grease to clean and polish the jars and lids back to looking like new. We realized that we had quite a lot of wax collected beneath our wax melter, which drops some into a bucket each time it dispenses. Over time, we had added leftover wax from each of our batch pours, resulting in a blend of a little bit of everything in our line. Would this blend work and meet Old Pine Candle Co.'s quality standards?
Well, you probably know by now the answer is yes!
That mixed wax is mostly unscented, with the tiniest notes of a little bit of every Old Pine Candle Co. candle. It smells like where we work! So we call it our "Studio Blend," and it makes for the perfect candle to burn at the dinner table or alongside other candles when you want to keep the smells subtle.
So there, a labor of love: Our love for the Earth and minimizing our impact on the environment. We sell these simple second-life lovelies for $15, too. Shop here. There's a limited number of them of course. Check back to see what happens with our next generation!