You may wonder why we are committed to using beeswax over other renewable wax products. At The Chandler, we take a naturopathic approach to consumerism and rate personal health above all. Beeswax is not harmful to our health unless ingested in large quantities (please don't do this) and it is debatably the only sustainable wax in use. We make this argument because almost all soybean crops are sprayed with pesticides and with the U.S. being the second highest producer of soy in the world, at 4.44 billion bushels per year, this renders over 86 million acres of the bee's land toxic, not (immediately) lethal to us, but fatal to the bees on contact. With the leading causes for Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) being the use of Neonicotinoid pesticides, we sleep soundly knowing that The Chandler is an advocate for bees, one of the most essential creatures to our own survival.
No matter which way you spin it, 94% of all soybeans planted are GMO and even if they are non-GMO soybeans, they have to undergo a chemical process called hydrogenation which then technically renders the wax "genetically modified". Although beeswax is roughly twice the cost of soy wax, it comes with the added health benefits as well as a longer burn time which we can all appreciate.