How Manduka Makes Recycling Easier than Trashing that Old Mat
I’ve had my first and only yoga mat for 20+ years. I could never justify a new mat purchase since my love of yoga ebbed and flowed. Sometimes that mat got more use than my lip gloss. Other times it was wedged between my dresser and wall to function as a cat scratching post (my own version of upcycling).
Even though my mat had lost all its grip, had zero cushion left, and was worn in all the right places, the guilt of tossing something that was still technically functional felt steeped in shame. Would this thing even biodegrade? (I think not.) Similar to how I wear mismatched socks that have lost their mate because throwing them in the trash washes me in guilt (“They don’t even have holes yet!”), I continued to carry ol’ faithful into yoga class, roll her out, and slip my way through each sweaty class.
THE EMAIL GODS MUST HAVE HEARD ME
An email from Manduka was perfectly timed with my rekindled interest in taking yoga, especially now that my favorite studio, SoHo Yoga, was letting members take off masks as long feet were touching the mat. (Safety is paramount, but hot yoga is hard enough without restricting your breathing.)
Picking out a yoga mat (green to connect with nature and draw energy from the ground? Or purple to connect with my highest chakra?) quickly became second in importance when I read Manduka’s LiveOn program. According to their website, LiveOn is:
“A CIRCULAR SOLUTION FOR YOGA MATS”
“As one of the largest producers of yoga mats, we’ve challenged ourselves to help keep them out of landfills. We created our LiveON program as the first step in implementing a zero-waste yoga mat cycle, helping our planet stay cleaner and greener.”
It goes like this:
Purchase your mat, select the LiveON option and pay a $10 fee in addition to the cost of your mat.
Your mat arrives in a box with a pre-paid shipping label.
Drop your old mat in the box, affix the pre-paid label, and voila. No trash. No waste. No guilt. Better grip!
More than the lightweight, natural tree rubber mat in the Deep Forest Marbled Green color that soothed and energized my heart chakra, the recycling program is why I hit *ADD TO CART*. And I’ll be damned if I didn’t feel the calm elation and gentle smile across my face when I received my new mat. As fun as it was to unroll it for the first time, I was more excited about sending ol’ faithful off to be born again.