{"id":27687,"date":"2023-09-15T13:37:19","date_gmt":"2023-09-15T17:37:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/?p=27687"},"modified":"2026-01-20T17:56:39","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T22:56:39","slug":"alumna-makes-sustainable-entrepreneurship-all-of-her-beeswax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/alumna-makes-sustainable-entrepreneurship-all-of-her-beeswax\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumna makes sustainable entrepreneurship all of her beeswax"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was buzzing at the headquarters of Becca\u2019s Beeswax Wraps<\/a>: the Greenville home of Becca Bolich Wade \u201919.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a whole lot of production just on the other side of that wall,\u201d said Wade, the company\u2019s founder, CEO and \u201cQueen Bee,\u201d nodding toward the kitchen.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Becca Bolich Wade \u201919 (left) and Celia Castellano \u201919 of Becca\u2019s Beeswax Wraps<\/p><\/div>\n

Wade was at home from her full-time job as a clean water specialist at conservation nonprofit Upstate Forever<\/a>. In her kitchen, the company\u2019s quality engineer \u2013 who is married to the CEO \u2013 was busy with the beeswax and cotton fabric that form the reusable food wraps.<\/p>\n

Also in the house was Celia Castellano \u201919, who works as the marketing and sales coordinator for Becca\u2019s Beeswax Wraps when she\u2019s not occupied with her master\u2019s degree in landscape architecture.<\/p>\n

The team was producing a larger batch than usual \u2013 about 400 wraps, Wade said \u2013 to stock their table at Timmons Arena for the 2023 Indie Craft Parade<\/a>, an annual market where more than 100 makers from across the United States would exhibit their handmade goods.<\/p>\n

A fresher take<\/h3>\n

From the beginning, the enterprise has been driven by the Delta Gamma sorority sisters\u2019 shared environmental passion. While Wade was studying conservation biology and African ecology in South Africa in Fall 2017, Castellano, a sustainability science<\/a> major and former fellow of The Shi Institute for Sustainable Communities, went to Scandinavia.<\/p>\n

\u201cDenmark is known for its eco-friendly lifestyle,\u201d she said. \u201cThere were a lot more progressive products there than I could find here.\u201d<\/p>\n

New friends in Denmark demonstrated how beeswax wraps could be washed and reused, keeping untold yards of throwaway plastic and aluminum foil out of landfills. When the roommates returned to Furman, the reusable wraps Castellano brought home became a staple in their kitchen \u2013 and both continued using them after they left Furman, buying them online from Canada and the U.K.<\/p>\n

Last year, with time on her hands after completing her master\u2019s program in natural science and environmental education, Wade tried her hand at making her own beeswax wraps as unique presents for friends. But first, she needed to figure out how.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of YouTube videos for people who want to make them at home,\u201d said Wade. \u201cThey\u2019re less than helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said the process involved a lot of trial and error and \u201cgetting lots of wax on our brand-new floors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sustainable sourcing<\/h3>\n

The beeswax comes in bulk from Bee Well Honey Farm<\/a> in nearby Pickens, South Carolina. The fabric is sourced sustainably; much of it is picked up from the bolts of leftover material donated to Greenville\u2019s ReCraft Creative Reuse Center<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverambitious quilters are our new best friends,\u201d said Castellano, who joined to help out as the company ramped up. Another Delta Gamma sister, Olivia Quick \u201920 M\u201922, a graduate of Furman\u2019s Master of Arts in Strategic Design (MASD<\/a>) program, added her talents to the hive as design and brand manager.<\/p>\n

The breathable beeswax wraps preserve food better than plastic, said Wade.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlastic wrap holds in condensation from your food, which actually causes it to mold much sooner,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd there\u2019s an antimicrobial component in beeswax that also chemically keeps your food fresher.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wade\u2019s products can last for a year with proper care<\/a>, and they are 100% biodegradable and compostable, she said.<\/p>\n

While keeping its environmental footprint small, Becca\u2019s Beeswax Wraps has been steadily expanding its retail footprint since starting production in July 2022. A mainstay at the Travelers\u2019 Rest Farmers Market, the wraps have also been sold at the Swamp Rabbit Caf\u00e9 and Grocery and other local shops. Online orders<\/a> have also been steady.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been an eventful flight to sustainable entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy experience at Furman lent itself really well to thinking outside the box,\u201d said Wade, a former double major in biology<\/a> and philosophy<\/a>. \u201cIt prepared me to look at things and take opportunities and not be afraid to chart a new path. We can care for the environment in a lot of different ways.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With her reusable beeswax food wraps, Becca Bolich Wade \u201919 offers an eco-friendly solution to keeping things fresh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":265,"featured_media":27692,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,19,37,36,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-biology","category-earth-environmental-and-sustainability-sciences","category-philosophy","category-top-stories"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27687"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40767,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27687\/revisions\/40767"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}