11 Eco-Friendly Yoga Mats For That Sustainable Stretch
Sustainability is just as important as stretching—especially when both human health and the health of the planet are at risk.
That’s where eco-friendly yoga mats comes in.
Most yoga mats are made of PVC, which poses (pun intended) a health risk to any asana advocate. It exposes you to carcinogenic dioxins and heavy metals, not to mention its heavy carbon footprint.
We don’t know about you, but that makes us feel pretty anti-zen.
Hot yoga ✔️; Hot planet ❌
So, stand tall and take a deep, grounding breath in because we’re on the hunt for the best eco-friendly yoga mat.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. We may receive a small commission if you make a purchase through a brand link below. Learn more here.
The Most Eco-Friendly Yoga Mats for Those (Eco) Warrior Poses
For a planet-friendly flow, picture digging your heels into a non-slip natural rubber mat from Jade Yoga.
For artistic inspiration whilst doing your asanas, each stunning sustainable yoga mat from Scoria is also naturally antimicrobial thanks to the sustainably-harvested cork material.
And you can practice your toxin-free tree pose on a non-stick eco-friendly yoga mat from Complete Unity Yoga.
Now get your ujjayi breath going, limber up in your favorite eco-friendly leggings, and let’s get down-dog to business.
For more on how we choose brands, cobra roll your way to the bottom of the article.
The Full List Of Sustainable Yoga Mat Brands
1. Jade Yoga
About Jade Yoga
For their commitment to making high-performance mats and sustainable yoga props, we’ll salute Jade Yoga as we do our sun salutations.
They were the first company to make “green” and non toxic eco friendly yoga mats, giving the slip to unsustainable elements and creating a non-slip eco-friendly mat to suit any yogi and any need.
Their Level One Yoga Mat For Beginners is an affordable eco-friendly yoga mat for a PVC-free practice.
As well as their non-slip natural rubber mats, they also offer an organic cotton yoga rug and woven grass meditation mats for those who are extra sensitive to the rubber smell.
Jade Yoga’s Ethical & Sustainability Practices
Materials:
You’ll find sustainably sourced rubber in all of Jade’s mats except the organic cotton yoga rug and the recycled sari yoga rug.
The Mysore Yoga Rug is finished with vegetable dyes made from turmeric, cumin, and indigo.
None of the mats contain PVC, EVA, or synthetic rubber.
Supply chain & labor practices:
Jade’s natural rubber mats are made in the USA.
The organic cotton rug is traditionally made in India and the recycled sari rug is made by the Local Women’s Handicrafts (LWH) in Nepal.
Green business practices:
Jade is operated by a former lawyer for the Environmental Protection Agency—a good indication that sustainability is a priority.
Not only are their mats natural, but they provide tips for properly recycling or upcycling old mats.
Community & charitable giving:
Jade Yoga plants a tree for every mat sold through Trees for the Future.
$5 from certain mat purchases are donated to causes like Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, and Autism Awareness Month.
With each Mysore Yoga Rug purchased, Jade provides a week of hot lunch to a child in India through the Akshaya Patra Foundation.
Their Community Partners program provides the homeless, prisoners, hospital patients, and underprivileged students with grants to try yoga.
Available: Jade Yoga
2. Scoria
About Scoria
Looking for a sustainable yoga mat in Canada?
Canadian-based Scoria’s eco-friendly yoga mats are also stunning works of art.
The brand was founded and crowdfunded on Kickstarter with one mission: to #SparkTheChildWithin.
Their sustainable cork yoga mats come in a selection of unique and beautiful designs and if you’re looking for an eco-friendly kids yoga mat, they have adorable designs for little ones, too.
Scoria’s Ethical & Sustainability Practices
Materials:
Scoria’s biodegradable mats are made of natural rubber and sustainably-harvested cork. These two materials are bonded together using heat and water-based eco adhesives.
If you’re looking for an antimicrobial and sticky yoga mat for your hot yoga practice, the natural properties of cork mean you don’t need to “fret the sweat”.
The beautiful mat designs are created using non-toxic water-based inks.
Supply chain & labor practices:
Scoria’s mats are SGS REACH certified.
The cork is sourced from Portugal and the natural rubber is from Vietnam.
Assembly and manufacturing take place in China, and designs are finished in Canada. Partners are scrutinized to ensure that working conditions and wages are ethical, fair, and safe.
Green business practices:
The cork is sustainably harvested from mature trees in Portugal every 9-12 years. The sustainable process allows the cork to regenerate and actually supports tree health.
Everything comes in plastic-free packaging.
Community & charitable giving:
The brand previously partnered with Feeding Children Everywhere, donating an equivalent of 151,880 healthy meals to children in need.
Their new giving partner is Right To Play and a portion of proceeds from every purchase supports Right To Play’s Promoting Life-Skills In Aboriginal Youth (PLAY) program.
3. Complete Unity Yoga
About Complete Unity Yoga
For an eco-friendly yoga mat that’s made in the UK, become one with Complete Unity Yoga.
Founded by two yoga teachers, they offer everything you need to practice yoga in a planet-friendly way.
In addition to mats, they stock props and accessories like bolsters, blocks, blankets, eco-friendly yoga mat bags, carrying straps, meditation cushions, and insulated bottles.
Their CompleteGrip™ mat is a non-slip, durable eco-friendly yoga mat that comes in two thicknesses: a standard 4mm thickness and a 2mm version, ideal for use as a sustainable travel yoga mat.
Worried about grip?
You can relax and breathe deeply with their 100% money-back guarantee that these will be the most non-slip eco-friendly yoga mats you’ve tried.
In addition to their own CompleteGrip™ mats they also stock ecoYoga mats, designed and manufactured by ecoYoga, a small Edinburgh-based business.
Complete Unity Yoga’s Ethical & Sustainability Practices
Materials:
The CompleteGrip™ non toxic yoga mat is made from sustainably-harvested tree rubber and jute. It’s BPA-free, plastic-free, PU-free, PE-free, and PVC-free.
Supply chain & labor practices:
We couldn’t find any manufacturing details for the CompleteGrip™ mats so we’ll be contacting Complete Unity Yoga to find out.
The mats by ecoYoga are made in the UK. ecoYoga uses a Scottish jute supplier that works with ISO-9001-certified factories in India and Bangladesh.
Green business practices:
The CompleteGrip™mats are made using a zero waste manufacturing process and are packaged plastic-free using FSC-certified craft paper.
Community & charitable giving:
Complete Unity Yoga donates 5% of its net profit to Helping Hands for India, a charity providing free education to children in rural India.
Available: Complete Unity Yoga
4. Yoga Design Lab
About Yoga Design Lab
We’re down for that downward dog with one of Yoga Design Lab’s non-toxic mats.
The brand was born out of a trip to Bali, where founder Chad Turner was inspired to create an alternative to the unoriginal, mass-produced mats he saw all around him.
Fast-forward to the present moment and YDL’s range of natural and recycled eco-friendly yoga mats help us choose products that are better for the planet and our practice.
Love to travel?
The ultra-thin 1.0mm sustainable travel yoga mat is made from natural rubber and recycled PET microfiber (read: it will take up a minimal amount of your checked baggage weight limit).
Yoga Design Lab’s Ethical & Sustainability Practices
Materials:
There are five materials in YDL’s large sustainable mat range: natural cork, tree rubber, recycled plastic bottle microfiber, PU, and TPE.
Their Combo Mat consists of a recycled PET microfiber top layer (made with approximately 19 plastic bottles) and a natural tree rubber base. Its prana-popping color comes from water-based inks.
The Cork Mat is made from biodegradable, naturally antimicrobial cork, and natural rubber.
The Infinity Mats are made from an open-cell PU top layer and a base layer made from tree rubber.
Finally, the Flow Mats are made with a recyclable TPE material.
All of these non-toxic yoga mats are free of silicone which is not biodegradable and phthalates, as well as being Prop 65 and REACH-certified.
Supply chain & labor practices:
YDL’s products are manufactured in China by BSCI-compliant factories that promote ethical working conditions.
Green Business Practices
By using recycled PET in a number of its products, YDL helps keep plastic out of oceans and landfill. So far, they’ve diverted over 861,000 plastic bottles!
They’re in the process of switching over their packaging to kraft paper labels.
Community & charitable giving:
The Dalai Lama believed, “If every 8-year-old in the world is taught meditation, we will eliminate violence from the world within one generation.”
That’s why $1 of every purchase goes towards supporting Urban Yoga Foundation’s programs in South Africa, NYC, and Canada.
Available: Yoga Design Lab
5. Öko Living
About Öko Living
Portland, Oregon brand Öko Living helps us ground our practice with their beautiful hand-loomed and plant-dyed mats.
Swapping off-gassing volatile organic compounds for aromatherapeutic herbs, these 5mm thick rugs go “beyond non-toxic” thanks to the bioactive properties of the Ayurvedic plant dyes.
Each 100% biodegradable organic eco-friendly yoga mat is sweat and slip-resistant. The woven-in “grip ribs” help to stabilize and the rugs get more grippy the more you sweat!
Öko Living’s Ethical & Sustainability Practices
Materials:
These rugs are woven from 6-ply 100% GOTS-certified organic cotton colored with Ayurvedic plant dyes.
Each one is dyed with 10-20 plants and flowers including neem, turmeric, and holy basil using an ancient process that preserves the bioactive medicinal qualities of the plants and makes the rugs antimicrobial.
For slip-free sun salutations, the rugs have a natural tree rubber-coated bottom but the cotton topcoat means no rubber smell.
Supply chain & labor practices:
Each non-toxic rug is hand-woven in India by skilled artisans. It takes 15 days to make each one. Öko Living ensures that fair wages and safe working conditions are provided.
Most of the artisans are women who have the opportunity to work from home whilst looking after their families.
Green business practices:
The rugs are made with zero chemicals and without using any electricity.
They’re also shipped plastic-free in a recyclable box.
Available: EarthHero
6. Shakti Warrior
About Shakti Warrior
Women-owned and operated brand Shakti Warrior puts the “goddess” in Goddess Pose.
This mother-daughter-founded company offers everything from props, bags, and mats to eco-friendly water bottles for staying hydrated during your Bikram yoga class.
Whether you lean toward Buti bright or classic cat-cow cork with delicate drawings, these mats feature beautiful artwork to inspire your practice.
With hyper-portable, foldable 1mm and 3mm mats and fully supportive 5mm mats, they offer something for every practice.
Shakti Warrior’s Ethical & Sustainability Practices
Materials:
Despite their large design selection, Shakti makes five different kinds of mats, all with a natural rubber base for grip and cushioning.
This tree rubber is either topped with hemp, cork, recycled PU leather, recycled plastic bottle microfiber suede, or a phthalate-free PVC (which we’d recommend avoiding).
Designs are created using water-based inks.
Supply chain & labor practices:
Yoga mat bags are manufactured through the Samarpan Foundation’s Institute of Learning, Culture, and Art, which provides socially disadvantaged women with tailoring skills training, high wages, and health care.
We’ll be reaching out to confirm where the mats themselves are manufactured.
Green business practices:
These eco mats are produced in a safe way that releases no toxic emissions into the atmosphere.
Be sure to upcycle your old PVC mat if you want 10% off your new one. It’ll get transformed into flip-flops that are then distributed to communities in need.
Community & charitable giving:
Shakti Warrior is “committed to empowering women athletes” and places volunteer coaches in underfunded schools to provide more children with sports opportunities.
They also plant a tree for every mat sold.
Yoga teachers can join their Teacher Tribe for discounts.
Available: Shakti Warrior
7. Bean Products
About Bean Products
Chicago is famous for its Bean (and its thrift stores) so it’s only fitting this next brand hails from the Windy City.
Bean Products makes sustainable yoga mats, props, and bags, everything you might need for your pro-planet practice.
And if your favorite yoga studio is your own lounge, they can help you pad that too, with organic pillows, eco-friendly dog beds, and other sustainable home goods.
Bean Products’ Ethical & Sustainability Practices
Materials:
The OMphibian mats feature a wet or dry grip (for hot yoga, of course) PU surface with a natural rubber core.
Other mats are made of a phthalate-free, recyclable TPE, or a blend of natural and synthetic rubber.
Bean Products does have a PVC mat that is SGS-tested as free of toxic phthalates, dioxins, furans, phenol, and heavy metals, but we’d recommend the more natural mats over this one.
They also have an OEKO-TEX 100 cotton mat (though we’re not sure if it’s organic cotton) that’s more like a cushion for those days when all you want to do is savasana.
Supply chain & labor practices:
As an eco-friendly yoga mat USA brand, Bean Products’ manufacturing is in the United States, which is also where some of the hemp used in their sustainable yoga props is grown.
Green business practices:
Bean takes pre-consumer furniture scraps and post-consumer recycled polystyrene to stuff their bean bag chairs.
Be sure to opt-in to their carbon-neutral shipping.
Community & charitable giving:
For every product they make, Bean plants one tree through Trees for the Future.
They also donate to The Hemp Foundation, which not only helps fund hemp fabric research but also supports farming families in Uttarakhand, India.
Available: Bean Products
8. Brentwood Home
About Brentwood Home
Looking for a sustainable yoga mat for Bikram or ashtanga yoga?
Brentwood Home’s organic yoga mat is both a mat and a towel. It comes in a choice of six calming colors and is super easy to clean and dry.
The best thing though is that the wetter it gets, the better the grip becomes—making it ideal for hot yoga.
No stranger to sustainable products, Brentwood Home makes some of our favorite sustainable mattresses for humans and some doggone-good dog beds for furry family members.
Given these cushy offerings, it’s perhaps not surprising they also offer a range of yoga and meditation cushions and comfy organic yoga mats.
Brentwood Home’s Ethical & Sustainability Practices
Materials:
These 5mm thick sustainable mats are made from 100% GOTS organic certified cotton with an FSC-certified natural latex anti-skid bottom.
The mats are also 100% Certified Vegan by Vegan Action.
They are machine washable and can be tumble or line dried.
Supply chain & labor practices:
The organic mats are made in India. We’ll be reaching out to Brentwood Home for more details.
Green business practices:
Brentwood Home is Climate Neutral Certified and their factory is powered by 100% renewable energy.
Community & charitable giving:
1% of proceeds from their Crystal Cove Line goes to Sustainable Surf’s SeaTrees project that helps restore kelp forests.
Available: Brentwood Home
9. Urbivore
About Urbivore
Are cork mats eco-friendly?
Absolutely! If they’re made from sustainably harvested cork, like the mats on offer by sister-founded Urbivore.
They’re also antimicrobial, non-toxic, odor-free, self-cleaning, and durable. As an added bonus, cork provides a slip-free surface that gets grippier when wet.
Short for “urban herbivore”, this Canadian brand offers a cork mat in several different sizes. Whether you’re looking for a long eco-friendly yoga mat for taller bodies or a smaller eco-friendly kids yoga mat, they have something for everyone.
Urbivore’s Ethical & Sustainability Practices
Materials:
Each eco-friendly cork yoga mat has a cork surface and a black-colored tree rubber base.
Supply chain & labor practices:
We’ll be reaching out to the brand for details on their manufacturing.
Green business practices:
Cork has a very low carbon footprint. It grows naturally without the need for fertilizer, pesticides, or irrigation. Cork oak forests also have one of the highest levels of biodiversity of any forested habitat.
All of Urbivore’s paper packaging is recycled, recyclable, or compostable.
Community & charitable giving:
Urbivore plants one tree for each mat sold via a partnership with One Tree Planted.
Available: Urbivore
10. Khali Khutta
About Khali Khutta
What’s the most eco-friendly yoga mat material?
We think it’s probably got to be long-lasting hemp, one of our favorite sustainable fabrics.
Nepalese brand Khali Khutta agrees—and their wild hemp yoga mats are positively stunning.
Hemp canvas is extremely hard wearing and the addition of cotton creates a soft yet grippy surface that also helps absorb moisture. The mats are designed with parallel grid stitching to help you align those poses.
The ethically-made mats join the brand’s selection of other products for bath and body, lifestyle, and yoga.
Khali Khutta’s Ethical & Sustainability Practices
Materials:
Khali Khutta’s eco-friendly yoga mats combine wild hemp-cotton canvas as the main material with a pure wild nettle fabric for the trim.
No bleach or dyes are used in their production and they are dyed in small batches using natural, sustainable dyes.
Supply chain & labor practices:
Khali Khutta’s products are made in Nepal, where they work with a small group of local farmers and artisans who use traditional craft skills.
Green business practices:
All of the raw materials they use are processed using age-old traditional methods, rooted in sustainability and simplicity.
In addition to using biodegradable materials and natural dyes, Khali Khutta’s manufacturing practices are zero waste and free of chemicals.
Community & charitable giving:
Khali Khutta is committed to supporting rural communities in Nepal. They visit all of the communities they work with and where possible, purchase value-added products directly from these communities to support local livelihoods.
Available: Khali Khutta
11. Mukha Yoga
About Mukha Yoga
We think the advice from this brand’s founder is pretty sound: Do Yoga, Save the Planet.
Mukha Yoga is your one-stop shop for a variety of brands making environmentally friendly yoga mats, sustainable yoga clothing, props, and accessories.
If you want to find and compare mats from the likes of Hugger Mugger, Jade Yoga, Alo, and more, this female-founded yoga e-emporium is the place to go.
Mukha Yoga’s Ethical & Sustainability Practices
Materials:
Given the sheer number of mats from a variety of brands, you’ll find many different materials.
Unfortunately, alongside plenty of eco materials like natural rubber, cork, and natural jute, you will find a small number of mats that are made of PVC.
Each product description has a drop-down “specs” box, so make sure to click on this to find out the exact materials—and avoid the ones made of PVC!
Supply chain & labor practices:
Since Mukha Yoga does not actually offer its own branded products, there is no manufacturing immediately involved.
Each brand they carry is handpicked for quality and ethics.
Green business practices:
Most partner brands are based on the West Coast, which helps keep their supply chain localized.
While they already ship plastic-free, Mukha Yoga joins one of its brands, prAna, in the Responsible Packaging Movement, and is working to eliminate excess packaging waste from its supply chain.
Community & charitable giving:
Inner peace and enlightenment should be accessible to everyone, which is why they provide a huge range of free community resources, like guided meditations, yoga pose guides, and nourishing recipes.
Mukha also sponsors occasional tree-planting campaigns.
Available: Mukha Yoga
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Why Choose Ethical & Environmentally Friendly Yoga Mats
We get real close to our mats during practice (like in child’s pose) so it’s important to steer clear of any toxic materials, especially PVC.
What is PVC and why is it bad?
PVC, or polyvinyl chloride, is a cheap type of plastic made from petroleum and chemicals like vinyl chloride, which is known to cause cancer.
Combine this with heavy metals and phthalates (endocrine/hormone disruptors and known carcinogens) and you’ve got a pretty anti-zen recipe for most yoga mats.
Makes you want to skip yoga class, doesn’t it?
If you’re temporarily stuck with a PVC pad, fear not: cover it with an eco-friendly towel (ideally organic cotton) to reduce contact.
There’s no safe way to recycle or destroy PVC, so that pretty purple PVC mat of yours will exist forever. Instead of throwing it away, try upcycling. Some yoga mat upcycling programs can put them to less harmful use.
You can also think of ways to repurpose them yourself—outside your home of course—like as a non-slip underlay for your home’s welcome mat.
For more on why we should avoid PVC, this video by the Safe Water Advocacy Alliance sums it up nicely.
How We Found The Best Sustainable Yoga Mats
We like to use our sustainable and ethical fashion criteria for anything that ends up in our homes or closets.
And it’s this criteria we used to answer the question: what is an eco friendly yoga mat?
Materials:
We’re going to stretch a little deeper here since it’s so important to this topic.
Unfortunately, we not only need to look out for PVC but also for the greenwashed assumption that PVC-free is the same thing as non-toxic.
Irena Webb’s (of I Read Labels for You) guidelines reveal that many supposedly non-toxic yoga mats are not nearly as non-toxic as they claim and can still contain carcinogens:
- Synthetic rubber: Still heavily petroleum-based and full of carcinogenic styrene. Avoid synthetic rubber as much as PVC.
- PER (Polymer Environmental Resin): Basically just PVC that’s been plasticized and stabilized with acetyl tributyl citrate, instead of phthalate-based plasticizers.
- TPE (Thermo Plastic Elastomer): Another petroleum-based product that often has undisclosed additives. While not all TPE mats are bad, it’s difficult to tell which ones are truly non-toxic.
- EVA (Ethylene Vinyl Acetate): Petroleum-based but chlorine free. However, it may still contain toxic chemicals like formaldehyde.
Are mats made of these less harmful than PVC?
Considering PVC is the most dangerous type of plastic, yes; but the bar is pretty low.
So, what are eco-friendly yoga mats made of?
Since true plant foam is yet to exist, we need to turn instead to natural materials which, after all, is what the original yoga mats were made from.
- Natural tree rubber: It’s a renewable resource made by tapping rubber trees—a process similar to tapping for maple syrup. It’s biodegradable, non-toxic, and can be combined with other materials to provide a non-slip base.
- Cork: Cork makes for good yoga mats because cork fabric is natural, renewable, and non-toxic. It’s also naturally antimicrobial and gets grippier when wet. Plus, harvesting cork actually helps ensure the healthy growth of cork oak trees (a process that also sequesters a lot of carbon).
- Natural plant fibers: Jute fiber, organic cotton, and hemp fabric are other sustainable materials making an appearance in sustainable mats. They’re renewable, biodegradable, absorbent, and easy to clean.
We also check that natural eco dyes, non-toxic adhesives, and safe inks are used.
- Certifications: Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS-certified), Prop 65, Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation, and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH), Vegan Action, OEKO-TEX 100
Supply chain & labor practices:
Ethical manufacturing makes us feel extra pumped for that 5 am ashtanga class.
We look for brands that pay fair wages and ensure safe working conditions. We’ll reach out to confirm labor practices if the details aren’t clear.
Green business practices:
Brands that use zero waste manufacturing, renewable energy, eco-friendly packaging materials, and tips for recycling yoga mats are best in (yoga) class for us.
Community & charitable giving:
Brands that give back, whether it be through donations, events, or simply cultivating a caring community, help us feel extra zen.
Final Thoughts On The Most Sustainable Yoga Mats
When you hit the mat, the last thing you want on your mind is… well…anything.
Concerns of toxins and off-gassing will mess with even the most focused flow.
Whether your goal through yoga is mindfulness and meditation, or a killer Paschimottanasana pose, you should be able to flow free from the worries of the environmental footprint of what’s underneath your feet.
We hope you found this article enlightening, no matter where you are in your yoga journey.
But we can only stretch so far. Now we need the help of you yogis to deepen that stretch and spread the word about the most sustainable mats.
Share this list of eco-friendly yoga mat companies with your pro-planet peers and next time you bring your wild hemp or cork yoga mat to class, don’t be afraid to show it off!
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Great article! I was only familiar with Manduka from these five brands and buying an eco-friendly mat will definitely be something I’ll look at for my next purchase. One of the foundational principles in yoga is about non-harm – Ahimsa (https://elevatecalm.com/ahimsa/), which also involves not harming the environment. So I consider an eco-friendly yoga mat essential for every yogi!
Hi, if you are interested most of Yoloha’s mats are made with TPE, far away from this ECO sustainability and safety, here the link:
https://yolohayoga.com/inside-yoloha/about-cork-yoga-mats/
Good day
Great point, thanks Alejandro!
TPE is better than other materials, however. It will break down eventually and won’t off-gas harmful chemicals, like formaldehyde, like PVC mats will.