Is there such a thing as a sustainable wetsuit?
I have been trying to find a sustainable wetsuit, and I must admit, the task has been rather daunting. I thought that limestone neoprene was the better option, and I found out it is better (no petroleum) but is also not that sustainable. So, I did some research and I thought it would be good to share my (somewhat scarce) knowledge.
Most conventional wetsuits are petroleum-based, which is kind of a strange thing considering that most people that wear them (surfers, divers etc.) are doing a sport that is so close to nature. Neoprene, the fabric used to make wetsuits, was invented in 1930 by DuPont. Neoprene has proven to be very useful, since it is more resistant than natural rubber to water, oils, solvents and heat. Polychloroprene, the technical name for neoprene, is mostly composed of carbon and hydrogen atoms. Not only is neoprene made of a non-renewable resource, petroleum (think oil exploration and drilling), it costs a lot of energy to make and it is non-biodegradable and it is produced by polymerization of chloroprene. Chloroprene is possibly carcinogenic to humans according to The International Agency for Research on Cancer.
There are greener wetsuits on the market, made of limestone. And although limestone neoprene requires less energy to make neoprene than it does to make it from petroleum, it still is a non-renewable source, it still requires a highly energy intensive (C02 polluting) process and it relies on questionable mining practices. So whether your wetsuit is made of petrochemical neoprene or limestone neoprene, both are not very environmentally friendly. Furthermore, it is nearly impossible to make a wetsuit made of 100% limestone neoprene. Limestone is just a little bit less environmentally unfriendly, but it is still not “green”.
Fortunately, there are other options in the market now. In 2008, Patagonia (who previously made their wetsuits of limestone neoprene) started experimenting with Yulex, a company making plant-based rubber. At first they worked with guayule latex, because they couldn’t source hevea rubber (which is more readily available) that was sustainably produced and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified by the Rainforest Alliance. And this is important because the hevea rubber industry is almost exclusively based on unsustainable practices like clear-cutting forests, slashing and burning endemic species, and then replacing them with lucrative rubber trees. So if you want to be sustainable, sourcing hevea rubber from just any producer won’t be the answer. Patagonia now only makes neoprene-free wetsuits and is encouraging their competitors to do the same. “We don’t want to be the only company making wetsuits with sustainably sourced natural rubber—our hope is that every company, especially the ones bigger than us, will start shifting away from nonrenewable materials.” One problem why other companies haven’t taken on the production of wetsuits made of natural rubber is that natural rubber has always been more expensive than traditional neoprene products. Another company that produces natural rubber wetsuits is Taiwan-based wetsuit material manufacturer Sheico, that launched its own hevea-based material (sourced from Malaysia) called NaturalPrene. Sheico’s hevea however doesn’t have an FSC certification. Some smaller companies uses Sheico´s material for their wetsuits, like Picture Organic, Soöruz, Seea and Vissla. “Many brands are doing lots of greenwashing with sustainability. So for us, the most important thing is to be transparent with sourcing – where the raw material comes from, how the fabric is made, by whom. This is all something we tell to our consumers,” says Julien Durant, Picture Organic’s co-founder.
And even though neoprene-free wetsuits are greener, there is still very much room for improvement though, since neoprene only makes up half of the materials used in normal conventional suits and so far no one has found a sustainable replacement for the other petrochemical products involved. For example, the adhesives used in wetsuits are very toxic and can include VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds), toluene, formaldehyde and more. The company GreenSmart has introduced Neogreen, a neoprene-like material made with a water-based chemistry allowing for less toxic adhesives to be used. Unfortunately, today it is only used in laptop sleeves and bottle cases, but hopefully its use will expand to wetsuits soon.
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