Buy eco-friendly yoga mats and natural yoga gear

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Find it! Natural yoga gear

Perhaps the single best thing you can do to honor your body and the environment while practicing yoga is to make the switch from a traditional so-called sticky mat to a natural PVC-free yoga mat. Look instead for gear made with natural rubber, jute, dried grass, organic cotton, or thermal plastic elastomer (TPE), a biodegradable compound made of carbon and hydrogen that's reportedly more eco-friendly. Also explore cork yoga blocks and highly-biodegradable soaps like castile.

Buying natural yoga gear help you go green because…

• You won't be supporting the production of eco-unfriendly PVC.
• They're made with sustainable ingredients that easily decompose.

More than 90 percent of sticky mats are made with PVC as are many yoga accessories, such as yoga blocks.[1] Vinyl chloride is a known human carcinogen which can cause a rare cancer of the liver, and vinyl chloride emissions from plants where PVC is manufactured may cause air pollution, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency.National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) for Vinyl Chloride Subpart F, OMB Control Number 2060-0071, EPA ICR Number 0186.09, Federal Register: September 25, 2001 (Volume 66, Number 186) Dioxin, a byproduct of vinyl chloride manufacturing and incineration of PVC in domestic garbage, has been linked to immune system suppression, cancer, and reproductive disorders, even at very low levels. And the situation is getting worse: The EPA estimates that dioxin releases from the PVC industry more than doubled between 1995 and 2000.US Environmental Protection Agency, The Inventory of Sources and Environmental Releases of Dioxin-Like Compounds in the United States: The Year 2000 Update, March 2005

Like conventional yoga mats, most yoga tools and accessories, such as blocks, are made from PVC-containing foam or toxic plastics. Environmentally-friendly yoga blocks are made from materials such as cork (a sustainable, easily recycled material), or bamboo (a rapidly-renewable, biodegradable resource).

Yoga enthusiasts often invest in specialized mat-cleaning products, but these, too have eco-consequences. Synthetic detergents used to clean yoga mats may contain chemical cleaning agents like alkylphenol ethoxylates (APEs) that are not easily biodegradable.[2] APEs are among the most widely used groups of surfactants, with about half a million tons produced annually worldwide.[3] The EPA has identified APEs as endocrine disrupters which can affect the reproductive systems of birds and mammals and disrupt the ability of some fish to reproduce, and measurable levels of APEs have been found in some lakes and streams.[4]

External links

• The Green Yoga Association: is a consortium of yoga studios that are dedicated to fostering ecological consciousness in the yoga community, and provides a list of green yoga resources.

Footnotes

1. Idealbite - Tired of slip-sliding on your so-called sticky mat? Use a yoga rug or a naturally-made mat instead
2. Friends of the Earth - An Environmental Assessment of Alkylphenol Ethoxylates and Alkylphenols
3. American Chemical Society Publications - European Bans on Surfactant Trigger Transatlantic Debate
4. US Department of Agriculture - Atmospheric Processes of Agricultural Pollutants that Affect Air and Water Quality