What to Do With an Old Yoga Mat

Somewhere in your closet is a rolled-up mat you have stopped using. The corners curl, the surface has gone slick or flaky, and it feels wrong to put a thing you practised on for years into the trash. So it sits there. This is the guide for that mat.

The short version: for a PVC, TPE or foam mat, recycling is not really on the table, reuse is the best thing you can do, donating works if you call ahead, and if you are in Colorado there is a trade-in that takes any mat and puts it to work. Details follow, honestly.

First, the honest part: most yoga mats cannot be recycled

Almost every mat sold in the last twenty years is PVC, TPE or a foam laminate, often several plastics bonded together. Curbside recycling does not accept flexible plastics of any kind, because they wrap around sorting machinery and contaminate loads of paper and containers. The mat-specific mail-in programs that once existed have mostly closed or serve limited areas, and the ones that survive tend to take only their own brand. If your mat's maker runs a take-back, use it. If not, the honest answer is that the mat will not become a new mat.

That is not a reason to throw it away. It is a reason to keep it out of the recycling bin, where it does harm, and give it a job somewhere else, where it does good.

The exception is natural materials. A cork mat can be cut up and composted, or used whole in the garden. A natural rubber base breaks down over time but is better repurposed than buried. A cotton yoga rug can be washed and donated like any textile. If you own one of those, skip to reuse and donation with a clear conscience.

Reuse it: ten jobs an old mat is good at

A worn yoga mat is still waterproof, cushioned and grippy. Those are useful properties everywhere except under your hands in a class. Scissors are the only tool you need.

1. 1.Kneeling pad for the garden

   Cut a 12 × 18 inch rectangle. It is waterproof, cushioned and grippy on wet soil, which is everything a kneeling pad needs.

2. 2.Non-slip liner under a rug or runner

   A full mat under a hallway runner stops it sliding on hardwood. Trim to size with scissors.

3. 3.Drawer and shelf liner

   Strips of mat line tool drawers, pantry shelves and the cupboard under the sink, and they wipe clean.

4. 4.A pad for the car

   A folded mat in the trunk stops groceries and gear sliding around, and a strip on the tailgate protects paint when you load bikes.

5. 5.Crate or kennel liner

   Dogs like the cushion and the mat washes with a hose. Many animal shelters accept old mats for the same reason; call first.

6. 6.Camping and picnic seat

   A quarter of a mat rolled into a backpack is a dry seat on wet ground and a sleeping-pad extender under the hips.

7. 7.Workshop and laundry-room floor mat

   Standing on a mat beats standing on concrete. It also catches drips under a washing machine.

8. 8.Padding for moving and storage

   Wrap picture frames, mirrors and instrument cases. It is thicker than bubble wrap and reusable.

9. 9.Mouse pad, coasters and jar openers

   Small offcuts. The textured surface grips a stuck lid better than a tea towel.

10. 10.A mat for the studio loaner pile

    If the mat is clean and intact, some studios keep a stack of loaners for drop-ins. Ask first; many prefer new mats for hygiene.

Donate it, with a phone call first

A clean, intact mat still has a yoga life ahead of it in the right hands. Studios with a loaner stack, community centres, school PE departments and youth programs sometimes take them; many prefer new mats for hygiene, so ask before you show up. Animal shelters are the most reliable takers, because a mat makes a cushioned, hoseable kennel liner. Local Buy Nothing groups move mats within a day.

Two rules. Wipe it down first. And do not donate a mat that is flaking or has lost its grip; that is a mat for the reuse list above, not for someone else's practice.

Trade it in, if you are in Colorado

We run a trade-in at our Colorado event booths. Bring any plastic mat, any brand, any condition, and take 40 percent off a Kaya cork mat the same day, one trade per person. The old mat goes to repurposedMATERIALS in Lafayette, Colorado, an industrial-reuse yard that sells tough, waterproof material on to workshops, barns and trailers where it earns its keep. It never comes back to a yoga studio, and we do not resell it.

We call this reuse, not recycling, because that is what it is. The pilot can take about 300 mats, it is in person only, and we publish where the mats went when it closes. The full terms and the next event dates are on the trade-in page and the events page.

Make the next one the last one for a long time

The reason this question exists is that plastic mats age badly and cannot be recovered. The way out is a mat that lasts and whose materials have an honest end of life. Cork over natural rubber does not flake, grips harder as it gets damp, needs nothing more than a damp cloth, and when it is finally done the cork composts and the rubber can be repurposed. Our cork yoga mats are built that way; the materials guide explains what is in them and what is not.

Whatever you buy, look after it. The care guide takes two minutes to read and adds years to a mat.

Frequently asked questions