OS ideas please? Tea Lights :)

blue_sea

Hi everyone

Just wondered if anyone had any ideas what to do about a million little tealights which have burnt out wicks but still have wax on the sides of the little aluminium containers?

anyone recycle these? thought about the microwave but what with it being metal....

Gigervamp

You should be able to get the wax out of the containers fairly easily without melting them as the metal is very thin and flexible.

When you've got the wax out, get an old tin can (baked bean or similar) and put the wax in the can. Put the can in a saucepan of hot water and melt the wax. Then you can use it to make new candles.

oystercatcher

I've made rough and ready homemade candles from all the odds and ends of left over wax just grated up. I use one of those glass pots that originally had a candle in a small jar would do though. My favourite idea for a wick is a used birthday cake candle, they never burn down far in our house (often use them for a couple of birthdays) mount the wick in centre of pot and just surround it with lots of wax gratings pushed down as firm as possible.

Not particularly elegant but still works as a functional candle when it's just me wanting some warmth and light.

Agapanthus

And don't forget that the tea-light casing is aluminium and recyclable. Most councils will collect them with the recycling, though in our house we collect all the aluminium foil, cans etc. and when we've got enough we take them to a local scrapyard who give us (a small amount of) money for them.

Peartree

As a scented candle addict, I was ending up with unused scented wax that I wanted to reuse. If you pop them in a very low oven for a little while, you can usually 'pop' out the wax just as the edges start to melt. You can also buy the wicks, attached to the little metal bits at the bottom, from Hobbycraft for not much money (probably much cheaper on the internet). Then, as someone said, using an old glass votive container or similar, make a new candle.

I don't know if this advice is much good for tea lights, but generally, to get a candle in a container to burn all the wax to the bottom, it is best to trim the wick to about quarter of an inch, make sure the candle is on a completely flat surface (amazing how hard this is - I always end up having to keep turning it around to get even burning!) and always burn the candle for long enough for the wax to 'pool' right across the entire surface - otherwise you get that 'tunnel' effect where the edges never melt.