Do you have beeswax wraps lying around that need to be revamped? Reviving old wraps is easier than you think and you can easily prolong the shelf-life by another year (maybe two! We’ll see how far these revived ones go). Exactly a year ago, I posted a tutorial on making your own beeswax wraps. After a year of use, they’ve held up!
In my first tutorial, I made five wraps and have since lost one… It’s probably floating around my kitchen somewhere. Of the four remaining wraps, I composted one that had some stains. Here is how my beeswax wraps look after a year:
They didn’t even fray! It proves that you don’t need any fancy equipment or ingredients to make them: simply beeswax and fabric.
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How to Revive Beeswax Wraps
Time: 15-20 minutes
It took me about 15 minutes to revive 3 and make 2 new ones.
Difficulty: Easy
Materials
- Old beeswax wraps, and scrap cotton or linen fabric for new wraps
- Beeswax pellets*
- Pinking shears or scissors
- Parchment paper (optional but highly recommended)
Parchment paper is compostable in at home or commercial composting. This* is the parchment paper I used and it says it’s compostable right on the box! Wax also decomposes. Although wax does take longer to rot than paper.
I suggest using parchment paper to save you on clean up time! It’s easy to just compost the paper after you are finished. I used the same paper for all 5 wraps that I made. If you don’t use parchment paper, just use a standard baking sheet and scrap excess beeswax with a bamboo scraper before washing.
I recently invested in pinking shears which are made for trimming fabric so it doesn’t fray. They can be expensive though… Especially high-quality ones that will actually cut fabric. If you are going to buy them, make the investment. Thank goodness for JoAnn coupons, amiright?
Directions
1. Throughly wash your beeswax wraps and let dry.
Unlike when I usually wash them after use, I washed them using HOT water to get rid of any lingering bacteria or debris. It’s okay if some beeswax gets displaced because we will be fixing that soon.
2. Preheat oven to 180F and trim fabric if needed.
You can see that the edges of my wraps held up fine but I used the pinking shears to trim the existing wraps and cute two new ones–one circle and one square.
When using 100% cotton, linen, rayon or any natural blend of fabric, you can compost the trimmings.
Here I am tracing my favorite bowl so that I can make a new beeswax wrap to fix over it. After tracing, I used a ruler to mark 2″ from the circle and draw a bigger one. The circle wrap is approximately 10″ in diameter.
I also made another square one since I can’t seem to locate my original square one…
3. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Lay a wrap on the parchment paper and sprinkle with beeswax pellets.
4. Put the tray in the oven for about 2-3 minutes.
After about a couple minutes, I give it a peek and see if there are any spots that are less “dark” aka not covered in wax. I sprinkle a bit more beeswax on the fabric and let them melt for another couple minutes.
PRO TIP: If you are reviving wraps and then making some new ones (like I did), revive the old ones first. Then there will be extra beeswax on your parchment paper that you can just lay down the fabric to absorb all the extra. Like I did here:
5. Remove from oven and with your fingertips carefully grab a corner and let harden.
Since the oven is not that hot, I’ve never had any trouble grabbing the corner of the fabric and peal it off the parchment paper. Last time, I hung them up to dry with a little clothespin set up, but this time I just held them until they were cool enough. About 3 minutes. Do not leave on the parchment paper or it will stick!
Here are my revamped wraps 
Here are all my beeswax wraps
How do you know it’s time to compost your beeswax wraps?
There can be many signs it’s time to say goodbye. An obvious one, is excessive damage, stains, or tears. Don’t feel guilty if you have to toss them! You avoided so much single-use plastic or plastic cling wrap by using these instead. Plus, they are so inexpensive to make that you can easily make a few more 😉
If you used 100% cotton or linen fabric, your beeswax wraps are compostable! Just toss them in your at-home compost bin or commercial composting. You could also use them as a fire starter!
Another sign that “it’s time,” is if the beeswax wrap loses its stickiness or if there are lingering smells/funkiness going on. I once wrapped a bagel and lox in a beeswax wrap and the smell of salmon never left… It was more than time for it to be composted.
I hope you enjoy this little tutorial! In my first post about beeswax wraps, I explained how you could revive them so it’s to be able to prove it 😉 These are one of my favorite zero waste alternatives! What zero waste swaps have you made in the kitchen?
Happy Making-
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