I have made a really artistic candle stand using reused and recycled items, by making the best use of old CDs. I want to share this with the readers before the festival of Diwali (To be observed on 23rd October this year) so that they can benefit from this and light up their Diwali, with an easy-to-make, great-looking, Eco-friendly Candle Stand. 

During its making I practised all the three Rs :

1. Reuse - As I made use of old & used CDs in an innovative manner.

2. Reduce - As I reduced the waste that finally ends up in the landfills, though small, but sure. Thus helping Bee'ah , Sharjah's Waste Management Company to achieve its goal of 'Zero Waste To Landfill By 2015'. As they say,  Drops make an ocean. :) 

3. Recycle-By the very definition, it is taking old, used and unwanted products and creating completely new things out of them. That is what I did by using CDs, Foil paper roll and a cake base and converted it into a candle stand.

Hence, the name: Eco-Friendly Candle Stand

For the benefit of international readers, let me give you a background of Diwali. This is a festival of lights celebrated in India. The festival spiritually signifies the victory of light over darkness, knowledge over ignorance, good over evil, and hope over despair. Before Diwali night, people clean, renovate and decorate their homes. After Prayers, fireworks follow. We in UAE also celebrate this festival with great enthusiasm except the firecrackers as they are a fire hazard & source of pollution.

In this month of festivals, excitement is infectious everywhere and even in my household.  But even whilst the excitement, I did not forget mother nature, what it is giving us and how we must give back to it. Hence my mind raced to create a fusion between tradition, creativity, and recycling.

We have so many waste CDs at home which are all CD-Rs and cannot be used again and their content is also pretty much unnecessary. And then, we end up throwing what can prove to be very useful. I had the same thought and decided to recycle these CD?s and decorate them in the best way I could. Then a brainwave struck me. It occurred to me to make these CD?s as part of a tea light candle holder on which we can place tea light candles for Diwali!

The best part was, that this turned out to be completely in favor of Mother Nature as I used, old CDs, leftover cardboard roll on which we wind foil paper and the used base on which we bake cakes. With a splash of acrylic paint, a few decorative items and lots of creativity, I was able to make the best use of old CDs and DVDs for festive occasions. I decorated the foil roll and attached it on top of the cake base with POP. On the roll, I attached the beautifully decorated CDs to make the bases for the candles, and on top of each decorated CD, a tea light candle looked just picture perfect. I made 4 of these holders for this year?s Diwali. These can be reused too.

These CDs can come in pretty handy too because if we replace Rangolis with this decorated E-Waste, and keep a candle on top of each, they can prove to be fantastic to keep on our doorstep during Diwali and Eid. These items which we consider waste have so many different uses. So, I encourage all readers to just lighten up their Diwali which is coming in a few days by taking a creative turn to E-waste and recycling for the beneficial cause of our environment.

Thanks for Reading & wish you a happy & prosperous Diwali