To think you don't throw away birthday cake candles?

[catsonthebed]

Was at my SILs at the weekend celebrating a birthday. When I went to help clear up, I saw that all the candles from the birthday cake were in the bin. When I rescued them, thinking they'd been thrown away accidentally, she said she always bins them. Apparently they're 'gross' after they've been in a cake and 'who on earth cba to wash things like that?'.

Is this really a thing? I've had the same candles for years, still use some of the holders from my childhood. They get lit for a few seconds and then blown out, a handful of times every year.

YABU: Eurgh, reusing candles, that's so gross, I've got a whole life to live and it holds no time for rinsing tiny plastic candle holders, you loser

YANBU: Obviously you reuse the things, this is just another example of a profligate and wasteful world gone MAD

It's wasteful to throw them away but they're definitely gross now they've been in the bin!

I would never consider binning!!

Never heard of this. Where do you stop with holding on to what is basically tat.

I feel it is wasteful - but new candles look so much better on a cake. Maybe we used saved ones when celebrating the cat’s birthday because she would not notice that we are being cheapskates.

Of course you don't throw them away! Have always kept them to reuse the on the next person's birthday.

It's perfectly normal to throw away candles. By the time you've sung happy birthday and they've been blown out then there isn't much point keeping them.

It's not about thinking it's gross or not but more from a practical point of view that they've served their purpose and keeping half used birthday candles in the hope that you remember to use them in future is unnecessary clutter.

Assuming they’re the little spindly candles, yes, I generally throw them away.

I always throw them away, but my DM always kept them. She still has candles from my christening cake.

You must keep them in a drawer for years and years but never actually re-use them.
At least, that's what I do.

Now I'm really sad thinking about all the cheery little happy birthday candles in landfill. ☹️

I never throw them away but I do have a tub full of partially burned birthday candles now because I then always buy new ones

I only had one child so only used candles once a year. I hate cluttery shite in my house so I would throw the candles away.

It feels wasteful when I do it but yes I do chuck them. I just don’t want to wash something that cost me a couple of quid then keep it in a drawer for months for the next birthday.

Voted YABU because of the unreasonable way in which you wrote your options.

I definitely use ours again, it seems such a silly thing to waste.
Given that they're candles, I imagine that the manufacturing process is quite energy intensive, so definitely would want to get the greatest amount of use of them.

I'm a binner, my husband is a keeper, so we end up with hundreds of used candles in the drawer.

They are so short after even one burn- really hard to use- and it's annoying when I've spent hours on the cake to top it with little stubs of candle.

Heartened to see the initial 10 minutes of voting goes roughly 25/75% in favour of reuse (pretty obvious which side of this fence I'm on). But a quarter of people chucking them straight in the bin!!... I hope all the rats at the landfill site fish them out and use the stubs for their own birthday cakes

How long does it take anyone to sing happy birthday? We always had those little packs of birthday candles and they were carefully returned after use. Also kept the little candle holder's (do people still use them). There was usually two or three birthdays worth of candle use and once they're lit who notices if they've been used.

The small thin cheapish ones usually have very short burn time so depends on the candle whether it's worth to keep. Generally don't. But my mum did because she had some which lasted couple of cakes before they started lookimg sad.

I have occasionally saved over the years in a fit of eco peak but can’t bring myself to use uneven half burned candles on the cake of someone I love!

Wasteful but it’s one use only here.

i use candles with the actual age,ie 13, so should I wait until I might have another dgc get to 13. They are also pink or blue. Never heard of anyone re using candles. Two years ago was our silver wedding, not sure what I would have done with a silver 25

We celebrate 5 birthdays year. It’s never long before the next cake comes around and it’s useful to have them in a drawer. They don’t go unused. It also reduces the mental load - we have a single drawer with lots of candles, matches, cake sparklers, cards, sellotape and ribbon so I’m not constantly shopping for more stuff when birthdays come around (which they do very quickly).

For the first couple of re-uses the candles still look great - they get blown out pretty quickly after lighting so they don’t burn down too much.

I’m not on the breadline and could easily afford more each time - but why?

Well they are gross from the bin but you are right though throwing candles out is ridiculous why , did they not have candle holders ?

I throw them away as used candles on a cake wouldn't look right!

I reuse them. Sometimes I buy the actual number shaped ones too. The 5 and 0 were used for DH's birthday, mine, and then my brother's. You light them and bring the cake out. Its not even obvious they've been (washed and) reused.