The Best Non Toxic Hemp Yoga Mats
Yoga is a great practice for mind, body, and spirit and we believe it can actually help you on your journey to living a more sustainable life. Yoga helps align your life with your values, to be more natural and holistic, and to feel the connection we have with Earth. However, the Western yoga industry that is so popular, isn’t the most eco-friendly or sustainable. Luckily, there are great strides towards making yoga products that are more eco-friendly (take a look at our blog all about it).
One of the biggest problems with yoga products are the mats. Yoga mats are usually made from harmful toxic ridden PVC foam that are made of plastics. To align more with your environmental values, try going for more natural materials for your yoga mats.
The most eco-friendly materials you can find for yoga mats are cork, cotton, or hemp. Today, we are going to breakdown 5 hemp yoga mats you can find on Etsy.
For hot yoga or vinyasa, a cork mat might be the best option for you. For other forms of yoga, Hatha, beginners, restorative, or yin, cotton or hemp are great options.
Cotton yoga mats are more readily available than hemp yoga mats, you can find a list of some awesome organic yoga mats on our blog all about them. Unfortunately though, if your cotton is not organic, it can be full of pesticides, because the cotton plants require a lot of pesticides. Besides the need for lots of pesticides, cotton also requires a lot more water than hemp does.
Hemp yoga mats are the best eco-friendly option for gentler forms of yoga. These mats are also best for outdoor practice or on non-slip floors, otherwise, they can be used as mat toppers in a studio setting or on slippery floors.
Hemp is very environmentally friendly, it doesn’t take up a lot of space to yield a lot of product, it doesn’t take much water, it doesn’t deplete soil, and it grows very quickly (source).
We’ve found 5 awesome hemp yoga mats that you can find on Etsy to support small artisan shops.
1. Organic Eco Style
Price | $58 - $62
This handmade mat from Organic Eco Style on Etsy is made of organic hemp and linen.
There are no dyes or harmful chemicals in this mat, just natural linen and organic hemp fiber.
There are two standard sizes, but you can get a custom size if you'd like since everything is handmade.
Organic Eco Style ships out of Ukraine and is a 5 star rated shop on Etsy.
Price | $67
Hemp Organic Life on Etsy is a small artisan shop out of Ukraine with great natural hemp products.
Their yoga mat is made of hemp and linen. This mat can slip on certain floors, so be mindful of where you place it. As mentioned above, outdoors or carpets are good for these types of mats. If you are doing a restorative or yin yoga practice it should be fine on any floor.
The standard mat size is 24" x 71" but a custom mat can be ordered as well.
This shop also has great meditation cushions, which we highlighted in our meditation gifts blog and organic cushions blog.
Price | $69
Another artisan shop out Ukraine is offering this cute elephant print quilted linen mat filled with hemp fibers.
The shop says their mat is machine washable and can be dried in the machine as well as long as everything is in delicate mode.
Enjoy this mat when you practice outdoors or when practicing a gentle yoga practice with no too many standing postures.
Price | $96.61
The Proud London Store offers a hemp yoga mat with an organic cotton border and natural rubber coated bottom to make it non-slip.
This mat can be used on smooth surfaces since it has the rubber bottom coating. These mats are also great for travel since they are foldable and as mat toppers for sweatier sessions like hot yoga and hot vinyasa.
These mats are made in Nepal and sold out of the UK in recycled/recyclable packaging.
Price | $152 - $160
This eco-friendly yoga mat is actually a mix of both organic cotton and wild hemp. Since hemp is a rough material, the combination with cotton makes the mat softer and easier on the body. There is padding in the mat as well that Khali Khutta only describes as "natural padding".
This mat comes in a variety of colors, that are all hand-dyed with natural colors.
The hemp yoga mats are made in Nepal and sold out of the UK on Etsy. The shop works with Nepali handcrafters to make these natural hemp yoga mats.
When you are looking to add a new yoga mat to your yoga accessories, consider a hemp yoga mat.
Hemp yoga mats are incredibly eco-friendly since hemp is such an easy crop on the environment, it uses little water, space, and grows quickly.
Hemp mats are usually combined with other natural materials to make them softer and easier to use on the body. These other materials are usually cotton or linen.
We found Etsy to be the best place to find these types of natural hemp yoga mats.
