Silicone Sustainability: The Honest Picture

No product is truly sustainable. Every material has an environmental cost. What matters is understanding that cost clearly enough to make a considered choice.

Here is what we know about ours.

What silicone leather does well

No microplastics.

PVC, polyurethane, and polyester all fragment into microplastic particles during normal use. These particles end up in household dust, waterways, and eventually in us. Polyester alone accounts for two-thirds of global textile production and is the single largest source of microplastic pollution. Silicone does not fragment. It remains structurally stable throughout its life. For a surface that babies crawl on and put their mouths near, this distinction matters.

No chemical smell.

Silicone leather is VOC-free: no chemical smell when you unroll it, no compounds releasing into your indoor air over time. EVA foam mats can off-gas formamide. PVC mats can release phthalates. Silicone is chemically inert.

Certified safe for baby skin and mouths.

Our mats hold OEKO-TEX Standard 100 Class 1 certification, the most stringent level, tested specifically for products that touch baby skin and that babies put in their mouths. No phthalates, no BPA, no formamide, no heavy metals.

Years, not months.

We have mats from 2021 that still look new. A single silicone leather mat can replace three to six cheaper PVC or PU alternatives over a six-year period. That means less manufacturing, less shipping, and less sitting in landfill. More on this below.

See the full range of silicone leather mats.

Dropped chocolate ice cream on grass. Wiped clean in seconds. No stain. No panic.

What silicone leather does not do well

We are not going to skip the uncomfortable parts.

It is not biodegradable.

Silicone persists in the environment for an estimated 50 to 500 years. Microorganisms cannot break it down. When a silicone mat reaches the end of its life, it will sit in landfill for a very long time. The mitigating factor: silicone is chemically inert in landfill. It does not leach toxins into soil or groundwater, and it does not fragment into microplastics. The problem is bulk, not contamination. But bulk is still a problem.

It is not practically recyclable yet.

Silicone can be chemically recycled back to its base components and reused. The technology exists. But the infrastructure does not. Municipal recycling programmes do not accept silicone. Specialty recyclers are rare. Dow is building its first silicone recycling plant in North America, and a breakthrough published in Science in April 2025 demonstrated a gallium-catalysed process that converts virtually any silicone waste back to chlorosilane monomers, the building blocks from which new silicones are made. Both are promising. Neither is available to consumers today. We cannot tell you to recycle your mat. Not honestly.

While recycling infrastructure develops, the most practical option is to pass your mat on. These mats hold their condition for years, and many find a second home. I share pre-loved listings through the newsletter. If you are selling yours, submit the link here.

Its production carbon footprint is higher than common plastics.

Producing one kilogram of silicone generates approximately 6 kg of CO2-equivalent. PVC sits at roughly 2 kg for modern European and US production. Polyurethane at 3.4 to 4.5 kg. Silicone is the most carbon-intensive option per kilogram produced. The environmental argument for silicone is not about production efficiency. The argument rests on needing less of it over time.

It requires petrochemical inputs.

Silicone is derived from silica, one of the most abundant minerals on earth. But turning silica into silicone requires high-energy industrial furnaces and methyl chloride derived from natural gas. Saying silicone "comes from sand" understates the process. Silicone is a synthetic material with an industrial supply chain.

The longevity argument

This is where the maths shifts.

WRAP, the UK resource efficiency body, found that extending the active life of clothing by nine months reduces carbon, water, and waste footprints by 20 to 30 percent each. The principle applies beyond clothing: longer use means less total impact. Our mats are designed to last five to eight years or more.

Consider a six-year window:

Higher production footprint per unit, yes. But fewer units. Fewer manufacturing cycles, fewer international shipments, fewer products discarded. Patagonia built an entire brand philosophy around this idea: the most responsible product is the one you do not have to replace.

What we say and what we do not say

We are careful with our language because the words matter, particularly under the EU Green Claims Directive, which prohibits unsubstantiated environmental claims.

We do not call our mats eco-friendly, sustainable, or carbon neutral. We call them long-lasting, non-toxic in use, and designed to be kept.

What we are watching

Silicone recycling is getting closer. Dow has committed investment to commercial-scale silicone recycling. Academic researchers have demonstrated catalytic processes that could make silicone waste fully circular. Consumer take-back programmes exist at a small scale through brands like Stasher and GoSili.

None of this is mature enough to change what we can claim today. But it may change what we can claim in two or three years. We will update this page as the landscape develops.

Find the right mat for your family.

The honest version

We chose the material that works best for families and produces the least waste over its lifetime. One mat, used for years, replacing several that would have been manufactured, shipped, and discarded.

That is not the same as zero impact. No product achieves that. For this use case, right now, it is the best answer we have found. And we would rather show you the full picture than pretend otherwise.