Did you know that a truck full of plastic is dumped into our oceans every minute? Did you know that plastic has devastating effects on the body, especially the endocrine system? If you want to reduce your kitchen waste and use a healthier food storage option, make your own beeswax wraps to replace cling film and sandwich bags. Say goodbye to plastic and hello to reusable beeswax food packaging. Every little reusable food storage addition goes a long way toward living an eco-friendly lifestyle. Here is a recipe for making DIY reusable beeswax food wraps.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup beeswax
- 1/4 cup pine resin
- 1/4 cup jojoba oil
- 4 – 18″-22″ fabric rectangles
What you need:
- Double boiler (glass vessel and sauce pot)
- parchment paper
- baking tray
- 1 inch wide brush
- Oven
How to make your own reusable food packaging from beeswax:
- Prepare and cut the fabric pieces
- 13 x 13 inches – large enough for a sandwich or to cover a fruit bowl
- 10 x 10 inches – for wrapping cheese, carrot sticks and vegetable snacks
- 14 x 26 inches – large enough to cover a baguette
- Melt beeswax and pine resin in a water bath
- While they are melting, drizzle over the jojoba oil and stir.
- Preheat oven to 225 degrees
- Place baking paper on the baking tray
- Place a single cut piece of fabric on the parchment paper
- Apply the beeswax mixture to the fabric with the brush.
- Place the baking sheet in the oven and let it melt.
- Once completely melted, remove the baking sheet.
- Go over the wax again with the brush to make sure everything is evenly distributed.
- Turn the cloth over the brush with wax and place it back in the oven to melt.
- Peel off parchment paper and hang to dry
- Repeat with remaining fabric pieces.
Using beeswax wraps
A reusable beeswax wrap can be used in place of plastic wrap or wax paper, or used as a sandwich or snack bag. There are many ways to use your homemade reusable beeswax food wraps.
Cleaning the beeswax cloths
Wash in cold water with a natural soap. Do not allow the wraps to soak in water as this will shorten their lifespan. Hang it to dry. Do not wash in machine or dishwashing detergent.
Cleaning up trash is something I’m constantly working on. Trying out reusable food storage options is a good place to start. In addition to using beeswax wraps, there are other eco-friendly ways to store food. Find out more about ways to store food without plastic here.
If you want to make them yourself, there are DIY kits online using reusable beeswax cling wrap. Click here to see the copy I purchased
To purchase them already made you can purchase them HERE.
There are many small ways we can incorporate an eco-friendly, green lifestyle. The goal is to become more reusable and less wasteful. Every contribution, no matter how small, helps ensure that waste no longer ends up in our landfills and does not end up in our oceans. Making your own reusable food wraps from beeswax is a great place to start!
Reduce, reuse, recycle is the green game 🙂
~Alex