Right: Zone3 and other high-end swimming wetsuit brands use water-based glue instead of solvent-based glue, recycled polyester for their linings, and build their suits to last
The inconvenient truth about neoprene is that it is awful for the environment. Made through a chemical process where either crude oil or limestone is used as a binding agent to make polychloroprene, it is energy-intensive to manufacture and requires fossil-fuelled machinery to extract. It is also rarely recycled. An estimated 380 tonnes of neoprene in the form of wetsuit waste alone ends up in landfill globally each year.
When you consider that wetsuits are bought by an increasingly eco-conscious market of outdoor swimmers and triathletes, the big question is why are swimming wetsuits still made out of neoprene?