As with the overall cannabis industry, Illinois has a packaging waste problem. Don’t believe it? Ask a few medical patients (who do not grow their medicine and even some who do) about the empty collected cannabis containers constantly piling up in a box or drawer.

Pat, also knows as @WestTownWeed606 on Instagram, is one of those registered medical patients who had been collecting a table full of empty cannabis containers. Pat waited for a recycling program to start in Illinois but nothing came to fruition. Without a recycling program, Pat’s collection of empty containers grew and was taking up a lot of space in his small Chicago apartment.

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Pat probably had even more containers than other patients and heavy consumers, because in July of 2020, he started his cannabis review page on Instagram as a way to keep track of all the new strains he had been reviewing. This led Pat to wonder what he could do to repurpose his jars.

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The main inspiration for saving his old jars and keeping a visual attention to the waste in the industry was Resinate Recycling, which he came across a couple weeks into posting on his review page. Resinate Recycling is an Arizona company that recycles plastic cannabis containers into flower pots, cups, and twisted trays.

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“I had been toying with the idea of making candles in the jars for about a month or so when my partner mentioned needing to go to the craft store,” Pat said. “I decided to put out a poll on my review pages story to gauge interest in the candles, if I were to make them. I got kind of mixed answers, but decided ‘fuck it, I’m making candles’ and watched some YouTube videos on what I’d need and how to make them on my way to the store.”

Back at home, he made his first batch of candles from leftover jars and could not stop. He ran out of wicks and wax the first couple days and returned to the store and purchased four times the wicks and wax, as well as more scents to mix in into the candles.

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The tentative name of the business is CANNdle’s by WestTownWeed. The candles are currently available for purchase at his Mercari here.

“I find these kind of projects like I’m doing very important as it demonstrates all the waste the industry is producing,” Pat said. “All of the jars so far are just from me, one person, over about a year and a half of saving them . . . With my CANNdle’s we know that they are at least getting one more purpose before the potential recycling process.”

Pat is still in the very early stages of this project, but his ultimate goal is to at least bring more awareness to the amount of waste this industry is creating by having individually prepackaged products and hopefully spark some ideas about what others can do with their cannabis waste as well.

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“I also don’t want to limit myself just to candles and am always looking for ideas with what to do with all these jars, especially the plastic ones,” he said. “If this project starts to get some traction, I’m going to be experimenting more with different scents and methods.”

Pat also wants to make these CANNdles have more of a “cannabis theme” other than the obvious and looking into infusing the candles with plant terpenes as well as other scents that hopefully remind people of specific strains.

“Any money I make from this project is going to go directly back into upgrading supplies and materials I use to give everyone a great quality product,” he said. “Right now, I’m getting through my massive collection of jars and having some close friends save some for me as well, but I’m hoping to get to the point where I can start taking in jars from others in the community.”

Find Pat on Instagram at WestTownWeed606 and YouTube here.

For more Illinois cannabis industry news, click here.