I’m creating miniature succulent plantings, and got the idea to use candle stubs as a mini plant holder. It would be trivially easy to melt-poke some drainage holes, and would look cute.
Oddly there’s not one Pinterest etc. showing this idea … did I actually come up with an original idea, or is this a bad idea for some reason that I missed?
I asked a couple succulents groups on FB and got the OMGChemicals replies because paraffin wax is petroleum based … but hysterics aside would anything truly harmful leach out into the soil?
These aren’t edible plants so that’s not really a concern. Miniature succulent plantings usually use common and easily propagated plants so for the really decorative stuff you see in magazines, the plants actually are considered semi-disposable.
Here is a parrafin MSDS (not sure what brand you are using, but it should be pretty similar)
See section 12 and 15:
The following are all quotes :
Ecotoxicity: Exological effects testing have not been conducted on this material. Discharges are expected to cause only localized and non-persistent environmental damage.
Environmental fate: Petroleum-based (mineral) waxes normally will float on on water. In stagnant or slow- flowing waterways, a wax layer can reduce the atmospheric oxygen exchange with the water system. If the wax layer is not removed, oxygen depletion can result in loss of marine life.
Resource Conservation: When this product becomes a waste, it is classified as a non-hazardous waste under the criteria of & Recovery Act RCRA (40CFR 261).
There are some warnings on improper use resulting in hazardous waste - but for the amounts you are using and the application you are using for, I would not worry at all.
I am a chemical engineer and deal with specifying oil products and processes on a regular basis. Virtually nothing is risk free but the general population doesn’t understand risk the way engineers and scientists do.
For example play sand can cause cancer. The probability of an individual getting cancer is very very small and goes up with prolonged exposure (like mining or breathing in sand processing environment for years). Cancer is the impact - which of course is very high. The product of probability x impact is termed as risk.
So, the impact of an airplane accident is very high but the probability is very low. Whereas the probability of a car accident is higher but the impact is moderate. So when you look at risk, driving is riskier than flying.
When the general population is talking about risk, they are usually talking only about the impact portion of the risk. Very little consideration is given to the probability portion. We maybe genetically wired to do so.
OP is talking about making a plant holder out of paraffin wax, so the probability of the wax coming in contact with the soil is 100%. What the environmental impact of that on the soil and thence into the plant?