Have you ever wondered if you can wear elastane if you are a vegan? This fabric is popular and appears in many kinds of clothing, including swimwear, activewear, and underwear. Is it a vegan-friendly product, or is it one you should be looking to avoid?
Elastane contains no animal products whatsoever, so it is considered a vegan fabric. In most cases, it is petroleum-based. Although it can be made without animal products, it is not considered a particularly environmental option because of its dependency on oil, and because its production process involves many toxins.
We’re going to use this article to find out more about whether vegans can wear elastane, and whether this product is generally considered ethical. We will also look at whether it’s environmentally friendly or not.
Is Elastane Suitable For Vegans?
If you are just looking for a fabric that is free from animal products, elastane is definitely a suitable option. As a fabric, it offers many advantages, which is why you see it in so many places. It’s generally used wherever the fabric needs to be stretchy.
Its main advantages are:
- It can stretch without being damaged
- It will hold its shape well
- It wears very well
- It can withstand exposure to saltwater (making it suitable for swimwear)
- It holds dye well
- It wicks moisture
- It’s very breathable
As you can see, many things set elastane apart from other fabrics, and you’re very likely to see it in certain categories of clothing. It most commonly appears in underwear and athletic clothes, but it’s a major component in swimwear and socks too.
The good news is that elastane is entirely synthetic and you do not need to worry about doing harm to animals if you select clothing that uses this product (at least directly; see the section below for more information about disposal).
The fabric does not require any form of animal products to be created, which makes it suitable for vegans at the most fundamental level.
Is Elastane Environmentally-Friendly?
Unfortunately, elastane is not considered environmentally friendly for a few different reasons. The most important is probably the disposal. At the end of its life, elastane is likely to end up in a landfill site, because it cannot biodegrade and recycling isn’t currently an easy option either. That means landfill sites are filling up with this unnatural fabric.
Additionally, washing elastane clothing is not ideal, because this releases microplastics into the water. Since the fabric is entirely synthetic, all the fibers that are released are synthetic, and will contribute to significant problems with microplastics in the oceans. Unfortunately, since elastane is generally used in frequent-wash garments (such as underwear and athletic wear), this is a fairly significant problem.
Furthermore, the production process involves a lot of toxic chemicals, so it’s quite a polluting operation. Even with responsible disposal of the chemicals, this is not particularly environmentally friendly, and can be damaging to the planet, to people, and to animals.
It’s also important to remember that elastane is derived from petroleum, and this is generally considered bad for the environmental. The extraction process alone can be problematic, and the use of oil is widely agreed to be an issue that humans should be looking to move away from.
Finally, the production process usually involves a lot of synthetic dyes, too – because swimwear and activewear tend to be brightly colored. These are notoriously bad for polluting the environment, especially the waters, making this another point against elastane from an eco-perspective.
Unfortunately, this means that elastane is not a particularly eco-friendly product, even though it is suitable for vegans.
Are There Alternative Fabrics?
One of the difficulties of finding an alternative to elastane is that it has some important properties that are hard to imitate with other fabrics. The stretchiness is the most notable, and the most difficult to replicate. If you’re looking for any of the clothing categories mentioned above, you may find that it’s impossible to avoid elastane.
However, some rival products are starting to emerge, such as Sorona (created by DuPont). This does still contain some polyester, but it’s made of 37 percent corn. Its carbon footprint is significantly lower. Another option is INVISTA’s bio-based Lycra.
These alternatives don’t tend to be easy to get hold of yet, but as more people become aware of the environmental impact that elastane has, they will likely become more readily available – and other products will probably emerge too. For now, however, it can be challenging to get ethical swimwear and activewear.
Conclusion
As you can see, elastane is technically a vegan product, but it has some significant environmental issues that might deter you from buying it. Its production process is problematic, and disposal is extremely difficult. Both of these areas are likely to indirectly harm animals, making elastane far less suitable for vegans, even though it doesn’t directly utilize animal products.
