A material guide to what’s inside our casa origin yoga mats
The materials you expose your body to matter greatly. Especially during moments when connecting with your inner being. Often, your yoga mat is home base when making this connection. Whether it’s through meditation, yoga, or a sweaty pilates session, your mat below you should provide a safe and comfortable space during these activities. Therefore, it’s important to consider the materials that make up your yoga mat. Let’s not forget, the materials determine the lifespan of your mat, its grip factor, support, and how easy it is to clean.
At Casa Origin, we want to empower and inspire your inner oasis. It’s our passion and greatest desire to support your inner exploration so you can access an inner peace as soon as you step onto your mat. That is why our yoga mats are thoughtfully designed and produced with exceptional materials and are completely plastic free.
We believe in transparency, so read below to read in detail about each material we use in both the top layer and bottom layer of our yoga mats.
Top Layer: Cork and TPE
Think of our cork as a sort of invisible, super supportive yoga teacher. It provides a smooth and non-slip texture to support your balance even during sweaty practice, but still allows you to flow between postures without sticking to the mat. We all know smell can ruin the most zen of moments...well not here, cork is antimicrobial -- eliminating natural bacteria, germs, and unpleasant odors.
The cork found in our yoga mats is sustainably produced in Portugal where it is harvested using an environmentally friendly technique. The cork is FSC Forest Management Certified, meaning that the forests where the cork comes from are responsibly managed and provide environmental, social, and economic benefits. Are you ready for this? Take a deep breath. Not one single oak tree is cut down to produce the cork for our mats...not one. Rather the bark is stripped by hand leaving the bark-less oak tree to absorb 5 times more carbon dioxide than unharvested oak trees! It gets even better...this harvesting process produces over 100,000 fair wage jobs.
What else? You can find TPE (Thermoplastic Elastomer) inside the top layer of our yoga mats. TPE is a non-toxic, biodegradable, plasticizer-free material designed to decompose. For full transparency, it’s generally hard to control what exact substances get into the TPE, but the material is eco-friendly and safer than PVC. Most conventional yoga mats are made from PVC, which include toxic materials like lead, cadmium, dioxin or phthalates. While, PVC can increase grip, it has been proved in several studies that the exposure to the substances found in PVC have a negative effect on your health.
Bottom Layer: Natural + Recycled Rubber (50/50)
The base layer of our mats are also non-slip due to a ribbed rubber structure, holding and giving you stability even on slippery surfaces.
Coming from plantations in Asia and South America, the natural rubber, also known as caoutchouc, is extracted from the milk of the rubber tree in a sustainable practice. It has been found that the Para rubber tree is an ecologically sustainable crop and actually contributes to the maintenance of the global carbon balance in the atmosphere. Rubber mats are made without any phthalates, plasticizers or additives, making them biodegradable. Normally most rubber ends up in landfills, creating waste and pollution, but natural rubber can be recycled into another product, such as tires. What’s even better is when recycled rubber products reach the end of their life, they can be recycled again into another product. Our mats are manufactured on the island of Taiwan by companies with years of experience that are regularly tested on health-hazarding substances by the SGS-Institute.
In addition to natural rubber, we also use recycled rubber in the base of our yoga mats. Some of that recycled rubber actually includes old yoga mats, meta, we know.
Our planet is our only home
If you’ve been keeping tabs, our carbon emissions are minimal, as we care about our planet, our people...including you. So to take it one step further, we use paper packaging made from recycled and recyclable cardboard.
And when your mat has reached the end of its life? We’ve created the CLOSE THE CYCLE program. Send us back your old Casa Origin mat and we will recycle it for you. In return, you will receive a discount on your next order. Just send us an e-mail and we will let you know the steps to follow.
Finally, our orders are shipped, CO2-neutrally, with DHL GoGreen.
For more inspirational content that empowers your inner oasis, follow us on IG @casa.origin. We look forward to connecting with you there.
*The base layer is 99% latex-free and safe more most people with a latex hypersensitivity, but in case of severe allergies, we recommend avoiding exposing yourself to our mat.
