The latest yoga innovation involves… algae?

Yoga is, at its core, a practice that involves getting in touch with your self, your spiritual energy, and the earth. But there’s no way to work around the fact that yoga-as-exercise is a formal industry, and has all the environmental problems that come with it. However, one company wants to make an already eco-mindful practice into one that’s downright eco-friendly, and that means making yoga mats out of a very unlikely material: Algae.

You read that right — that’s algae, as in the tiny plant-like creatures that live in water everywhere. Algix and Effekt, two companies which tackle clean technology and material development respectively, have teamed up together to create Bloom, a foam substance that can be used in everything from footwear to, yes, yoga mats.

In a particularly green move, the companies source their algae not from the ocean or from standing freshwater ponds, but rather from wastewater streams around the world. That’s right — Bloom isn’t just made out of algae, but made from the most otherwise useless algae sources in the world. And now, what would’ve literally gone to waste is now being used to outfit the next generation of yoga practitioners.

Read more about Algix and Bloom here. Hey, we live in a world with seaweed that tastes like bacon — what other wonderful innovations lie within our planet’s waters?

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H/T GOOD. Image via Shutterstock.