Saving our planet: making beeswax wraps

I found a great book by Erin Rhoads, called Waste Not and have been inspired by her gentle non-preaching style to implement ways to reduce my use of plastics. One of her suggestions is to make your own beeswax wraps to replace the usage of Cling wrap/ Plastic Wrap. I found that these were quite simple to make, with my major challenge being to find a source of beeswax.

More information on her book can be found here:

https://www.booktopia.com.au/waste-not-erin-rhoads/prod9781743794623.html

Making beeswax wraps

Find some cotton fabric (as synthetics are damaging the planet). Patchwork supplies are a good place to start, but I actually found the lemon print fabric on special in the dress section of Spotlight. You may cut it to any size that is suitable, but I chose to cut squares 12 inches x 12 inches (30 cm x 30 cm) and 8 inches x 8 inches (20cm x 20cm).

Hem a narrow double fold hem around the edges (or overlock, or trim with pinking shears), and then wash the cloth and dry it so that it is clean for using on food. It may also need to be ironed after washing and drying.

Grate some beeswax. Erin suggests 70g (1/2 cup) for the 30cm x 30 cm cloth, but I found that Morag Gamble’ s suggestion of using 10g and ¼ teaspoon of coconut oil produced softer wraps. I find that it is a good idea to have a separate grater just for grating beeswax, and grating more than I need saves time next time (I keep the surplus in a glass jar).

Erin then describes placing the cloth (sprinkled with the grated beeswax) between sheets of baking paper, lining a tea towel, and then running a hot iron over the top for about 5 mins (until the wax has melted). This produces a nice wrinkle free cloth.

 However I found Morag Gamble's method of wrapping the cloth around the grated beeswax and coconut oil and heating this in a sandwich press for 1 minute, to be much easier (I decided to add a wrapping of baking paper around the cloth parcel to protect the sandwich press). This does, however, leave the finished cloth with fold marks initially.

Morag’s method can be found here:

 https://ourpermaculturelife.com/five-easy-steps-to-make-cheap-beeswax-wraps-reduce-cling-wrap-use-film-10-with-morag-gamble-5-mins/

Let the cloth cool (be careful removing it from the sandwich press, as I found that hot melted beeswax dripped from the ends of the baking paper if I didn't pull the edges up. And you're done! After use wipe over with cool water (hot may melt the wax).

Ways of using the wraps

There are some good examples of ways to use these wraps on this YouTube clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yJAG2UB7NY

Remember: this is one small step to help protect our beautiful oceans, and each small step does make a difference.