Starting Fires without chemicals

Some of us have done it. We poured a little gasoline or a charcoal starter fluid to get a fire started. Yes, in an instant, it worked. But we did not think about the after effects of using chemicals to start fires. Now that we are more aware of how to take care of our bodies and environments, we search and use products and services that are earth friendlier. Now there is a product that fits in this category and can be used to start fires safely and is environmentally good. This new product is called Prairie Bug fire starters and is sold on Amazon by Whole Earth Partners, a company from Iowa. Their humble website is at www.prairiefirebugs.com where you can purchase these natural fire starters in a 12pack box. Their ingredients are listed as soy wax and clean recycled cardboard.
Looks like you can use them in your fireplace in your home or in your outdoor campfire or firepit.

Green Mini Facts: Soy Candles

What is Soy Wax? Soy wax is processed from soy beans and this wax is the oil that is separated from the soy beans.

How are soy candles made?
Soy wax usually ends up in as flakes or small pieces. This makes it easier for handling. The wax is gently heated up between 150 and 180 degrees F. then allowed to cool a bit. After this, colorants, essential oils or fragrances are added to the liquid mixture, which is then poured into individual candle molds or containers (a wick may be inserted at this time) and allowed to cool. After a few hours, the soy wax hardens and is ready to be used.

Why is soy wax considered to be a renewable source?
The soy beans which produced the wax can be planted each year and do not deplete natural resources.

Are soy wax candles cleaner burning than paraffin candles?
There are scientific studies that show that soy candles do not emit any carcinogen particles in the air and burn longer than traditional paraffin candles.


Is soy wax better than bees wax? Bees wax is a great type of wax, but is generally 5-7 times more expensive than soy wax. There currently is a great concern about the declining bee population in the United States, which may affect the availability of it.

What does "soy blend" for a candle? This typically means that there is some soy wax in the candle, but probably not 100%. Most likely, the other type of wax used is paraffin.

What is paraffin wax? Paraffin wax is a
by-product of the gasoline refinery process. It is questionable how healthy the use of it is in our environment.

How long has soy wax been in use? Soy wax is also considered to be a vegetable wax and has been in commercial use since the 1990's.

WholeMade creates and distributes soy wax candles in a variety of shapes and fragrances. Their website is: http://wholemade.biz

3 Easy steps to Eco Friendly Practices

You are probably considering how to improve your daily practices that will reduce waste and use sustainable materials. You may be surprised how easy it is to get started and you may be doing some of them now. Here is your starter list:

Cloth Shopping Bags.

Bring your own shopping bags into the store and eliminate the plastic bags that the store typically gives you. With a little looking, you can now find these stylish cloth bags with carrying straps for sale. Buy a few to get started, keep them in the trunk of your car and start using them.



Cleaning Cloths.
How often do you throw away worn out clothing, towels, wash rags etc?
Next time you are cleaning out the drawers or closets, take some of the clothing that is suitable for making into rags and cut into 2 feet by 2 feet strips. Don't include buttons, zippers or other attachments that could make your new cleaning rags scratchy. Now that you have your "pile" of rags, decide where to store them and tell the rest of your family where they are and to start using them. Depending on what they are used for, you can wash them again several times for constant reusing. And, you won't have to buy so many paper towels. And, donate the rest of your clothing pile to a charitable organization that accepts them.

Newspapers.
Hopefully your community embraces recycling. Even if they don't, you can still recycle yourself. Keep a box or container out in the garage or someplace where moisture can't get to it.
Place all of your used newspapers into this container. When the container gets full, put it on the curb to be picked up by the recycling company. What? No recycling company? Well, think about how those newspapers could be used in a different way to extend their use: Packing material for anything you are mailing, cover material for those weekend projects such as painting or gift wrapping material for those do-it-yourself wrappers. Start thinking and talking about it and you will come up with 100 other uses!

Here's a company in Iowa that recycles clean cardboard and shreds it so it can be used as shipping materials. Their name is Corrugated Solutions/ Earth Stuf. You can contact them for your needs,too. For those of you that order from WholeMade, you will find your products are shipped with this material, too. No more messy shipping peanuts!

Natural Lifestyle Products

We at WholeMade are creating products for people that interested in using Natural Lifestyle Products. Natural Lifestyle Products is such a broad term and we need to continue to educate and define what that is and what does that mean.



Our company (WholeMade) looks at using as many plant based ingredients as possible and incorporating those ingredients into each product. For example, we produce candles that are made from soybean wax, instead of paraffin wax. Soy wax is a renewable source of energy, grown by farmers, in United States, particularly in the Midwest.

We believe that many people want to use products that are more naturally made and use more natural ingredients. We create and manufacture our products with that in mind. Check out www.wholemade.biz for more information about our offerings.