Posts in Lifestyle Two

12 Sustainable Beach Towels for Eco-Friendly Fun Under the Sun

image: Weezie
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The Best Eco-Friendly, Sustainable & Organic Beach Towels

It’s about that time when we start thinking about sunny beach trips and packing our bags for some much-needed ocean time. While I’ve always been one to grab a towel out of our bathroom, it is nice to have a designated beach towel you can lay out comfortably on. This list has brands committed to better materials and ethical production - and make super cute beach towels that dry quickly and pack easy!

Why Choose an Organic Cotton Beach Towel

Whenever you are venturing out into nature, it’s always important to take care of your surroundings, so why not think about the things you purchase for your outdoor lifestyle?

Besides organic cotton being ultra-absorbent and cozy for Long Beach days, it is also grown without the use of synthetic pesticides and herbicides. Organic cotton crops can be sprayed with Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) natural proteins to protect them from insect infestation and crop destruction, but not with the cocktail of toxic chemicals often sprayed over conventional cotton crops. This not only helps to protect farmers, but the environment, too. Eutrophication occurs when water is overly enriched with nutrients, often due to fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides, which can result in dead-zones in water, where life struggles to persist.

However, not all organic cotton is created equal - while still a better choice than conventional - you can learn more about the issues regarding the fabric here. Also, make sure to look out for GOTS Certified or OEKO-TEX® certified when shopping organic cotton products.

Other Sustainable Fabrics for Beach Towels

If you are looking for more of a performance beach towel - particularly one that can shake off sand easily - then towels made from recycled plastic would be better suited for you and your needs. We have two brands listed in this post that offer microfiber towels, which are very absorbent and do not attract sticking sand. However, microplastics are always an issue with microfiber fabrics, so make sure to use a Guppy Bag when washing them to avoid microplastics from entering our waterways.

Our Top Picks for Sustainable Beach Towels:

1) Coyuchi

Price | $98-108

Material | Organic Cotton

An excellent choice for a Turkish towel, Coyuchi’s flatweave Mediterranean set features a beach towel size in five different colors.

They are woven from yarn-dyed organic cotton and come with the signature hand-knotted fringe.

The cotton is grown and woven in the Aegean region of Turkey, and it is GOTS (a great certification) + Made Safe Certified.

Shop Coyuchi

2) West Elm

Price | $35-80

Material | Organic Cotton

I am loving the Pool Scene beach towel pictured here. Too cute! West Elm always has something fun to add to these lists, and their prices can (sometimes) be a bit more affordable.

Their organic cotton is GOTS certified, and they have Turkish-style towels as well as Terry depending on your preference. While I love supporting smaller brands more, this is still a good option.

Shop West Elm

3) Minna

Price | $98

Material | Cotton

I’ve always thought this brand made such beautiful textiles! MINNA uses traditional craft techniques to produce ethical goods with a contemporary aesthetic.

For example, their new colorful beach towels are handwoven in partnership with weavers in Nahualá, Guatemala - and the cotton used in their products is colored with natural dyes or toxin-free synthetic dyes!

Shop Minna

4) Pottery Barn

Price | $30-50

Material | Organic Cotton

Another popular organic cotton beach towel, Pottery Barn is known for its classic stripes and customizable options. The awning-stripe design lets you choose your color, and the monogram option offers a personal touch. It’s that perfect timeless, preppy poolside vibe!

Their organic cotton is also OEKO-TEX & GOTS Certified. We also linked up their ‘sustainably sourced’ towels for easy shopping.

Shop Pottery Barn

5) Hilana

Price | $40-55

Material | Upcycled Cotton

This is a unique towel because it uses 50% of its threads with regenerated cotton making it a more low-waste product. They are traditional flat-woven Turkish peshtemal and crafted by artisans in Turkey. Hilana is a B Corp Certified company creating sustainably made towels, throws, shawls, tablecloths & bathrobes that are soft & absorbent.

use code SUSTAINABLYCHIC for $20 off your first order of $150+ at madetrade.com

Shop Hilana

6) Sunrise Bliss

Price |$28-38

Material | Organic Cotton

The perfect hair towel…

Each towel is made from GOTS Certified Organic Cotton with low impact dyes and washes very well. It's a very soft, t-shirt-type fabric with excellent stretch retention. Plus, they are made right in the US (New York) and come in various cute colors and prints! I've used these towels for my hair for years - always right after I wash it or after swimming in the ocean or pool. They are a must-have for my long, wet hair!!

Shop Sunrise Bliss

7) QuiQuattro

Price | $40-$85

Material | Authentic Turkish Cotton

All of the towels from this Ohio-based, woman-owned business are made be women artisans in Turkey (right where the cotton is grown and harvested!). I love how these lightweight towels can actually double as a beach or bath towel… or even a picnic blanket! They’re available in a variety of different colors, patterns, and designs—whether you’re looking for something fun and colorful or something more neutral and timeless. This is an especially great option for travel, since these towels won’t take up a ton of space in your suitcase!

Shop Quiquattro

8) Affina

Price | $59.95

Material | Organic Cotton

Inspired by our coral reefs, Affina's Seaweaves™ colorful beach towel collection is woven from natural brain coral and sea fan patterns.

These luxuriously oversized towels are made from 100% organic cotton using low-impact, fiber-reactive dyes and are Standard 100 by Oeko-Tex® and GOTS certified.

Shop Affina

9) Weezie

Price | $78+

Material | Organic Cotton

These luxurious, oversized beach towels are plush, and the cotton is cut close to avoid picking up extra sand when sitting at the beach.

They are made in Portugal with 100% organic long-staple cotton, and are hypoallergenic, low linting and OEKO-TEX® certified.

You can also monogram or have a personalized embroidery on these towels!

Shop Weezie

10) Finisterre

Price | $75+

Material | Organic Cotton

A little different than your classic beach towel, Finisterre offers a range of toweling changing robes, perfect for drying off after your adventure.

Their Vean Changing Robe is made from super-soft GOTS Certified organic cotton toweling fabric. This robe is perfect for any beach-goer, swimmer, and surfer who doesn’t want a towel malfunctioning and can instantly throw this on over their swimsuit and change.

Shop Finisterre

11) Delilah Home

Price | $40

Material | Organic Cotton

These soft beach and pool towels are European-crafted and made of 100% GOTS-certified organic Turkish cotton. The extra-long loops make the towels highly absorbent, soft, and up to 50% thicker than most other towels.

Plus, they’re responsibly made in a family-run factory in Portugal using state-of-the-art machinery and higher than Fair Trade wages.

Shop Delilah Home

12) Sand Cloud

Price | $48-70

Material | Organic Cotton

If you are looking for some extra-large beach towels, this is your place!

Sand Cloud creates sand-resistant towels that dry 3xs faster than a conventional cotton beach towel. They have lots of fun prints and colors, too.

When you purchase one of their towels, you help preserve our marine life, with 10% of their profits going towards marine conservation.

Shop Sand Cloud

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WANT MORE SUSTAINABLE BRANDS? VISIT OUR BRAND DIRECTORY!

Our Brand Directory is home to hundreds of sustainable brands, from makeup to cleaning supplies, from underwear to shoes. We have broken everything down by category for easy shopping, along with discount codes unique to Sustainably Chic viewers.

Shop the Sustainable Brand Directory

How are Books Made?

Understanding the ecological impact of books starts with knowing how they’re made. The majority of books today are mass-produced on giant presses weighing hundreds of thousands of pounds. These presses are operated by employees, who help ensure quality as the printer moves through each stage of the process.

The biggest resource used in the printing of books is paper — which comes on giant spools before being loaded into the machine. It’s not just a little bit of paper used, either: 32 million trees are used to produce books in the United States. This reduction in trees accounts for nearly half of a book’s overall environmental impact. Ink, too, is an important ingredient in book printing, especially when it comes to printing color covers and books with images or illustrations. Many conventional inks lead to pollution of air, water, and soil, as do the compounds and solvents used in the process.

Once the book pages have been printed, they are then bound with large amounts of glue/ That glue may also be made with toxic chemicals, like hazardous air pollutants (HACs) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), some of which can be carcinogenic (among other dangers to human health).

Hardcover books have a cardboard cover attached, while paperback books use a heavier weight of paper. After the cover, books are then added to boxes where they are shipped to distributors via all forms of travel and sold to customers around the world.

While book printing innovation has come a long way from the hand-powered printing press, the massive machines today use a significant amount of energy, not to mention the resources used in the process.

The Environmental Impact of Books

Many people associate book production with deforestation—and that is a major cause for concern. But did you know that the paper production required in bookmaking is also a major contributor to water degradation? Paper mills have long been a source of water pollution, with chemicals and byproducts being released into the streams and rivers nearby. Water contamination isn’t only damaging not only for nearby ecosystems and animals, but also for people who live in the area.

Another aspect of the environmental impact of books: the waste they produce. The EPA states that books and other paper products, like newspapers, are recycled at a rate of around 50%. The other half of books may wind up either composted and made into other paper products, but millions of books wind up in the landfill each year. The saddest part about that is many of the books going to the landfill haven’t even been read.

So how do so many books end up going to waste? One of the major reasons is that the publishing industry has a practice of producing too many books that don’t wind up selling. If a book is anticipated to sell a certain number of copies, for example, a publisher might make those books ahead of time to meet the forecasted demand. And while it would be much more sustainable to print books on demand as they sell, the production and distribution would likely take too long to meet modern customer’s laser-fast delivery expectations.

So, when those extra books don’t wind up selling, retailers can find themselves with an excess amount of books and no place to put them. When that situation arises, shipping the books back to the publisher can incur too much additional cost on behalf of the retailer. So instead of giving them to someone who can use them, the covers are ripped off the books as proof they didn’t sell, and they’re either dumped to the garbage or sent through pulping—a manufacturing process which breaks down paper products to recycle them into new products. This recycling process is better than books being sent to the landfill; however, pulping, like paper production, requires a great deal of water and produces wastewater pollution.

Sustainable Steps in Publishing

Books can negatively impact the environment throughout their lifecycle. Fortunately, some publishers are taking steps to make book publishing more sustainable. For example, John Wiley & Sons uses 100% renewable energy and is carbon neutral certified, and MacMillan went fully carbon neutral in 2017. Harper Collins is using a significant amount of recycled paper, with a 2025 goal of using either all recycled or certified paper ( meaning the paper is certified as responsibly sourced by the Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®).

You may still wonder why major publishers don’t use all recycled material, or why it’s taking so long to adopt more sustainable practices. It’s because there are many barriers preventing publishing companies from being more green. For example, publishers have stated that recycled materials simply aren’t plentiful enough to use in mass book production, and that the cost to acquire them is too high.

That’s where organizations like the World Wildlife Foundation Forest Forward program can help. Forest Forward exists to help companies that produce paper products learn to reduce their environmental impact. Specifically, this consultancy teaches businesses how to meet their financial goals while also being more sustainable in the process, which negates the argument that sustainable steps are too costly.

Additionally, some organizations are helping authors have a greater say in how their books impact the earth. Tree to Me, created by the Society of Authors, offers free resources to help writers and authors request more sustainable steps from their publisher.

These are just a few examples of what major publishers are doing, and since 80% of all books in the US are created by these major publishers, their sustainability improvements go a long way.

How to Read More Sustainably

Despite the positive sustainability steps of major companies, there is still a great deal of work to be done. We may not have control over how many books publishers produce or what they do with unread books, but as with any consumer good, readers do have a lot of power in which industries and practices they support. How you choose to buy books, in what format, and from whom can make a major difference in reducing the impact of reading.

Audiobooks and eBooks

Switching to audiobooks and ebooks can reduce your personal impact when it comes to reading. The impact of audiobooks is much less than a physical book. While it still takes energy to store them and to charge the devices you use them on, you’re probably using those devices in other ways, anyway.

As for ebooks, It’s obvious that they also don’t use paper, but did you know that e-readers also take up less space when shipping? This reduces the CO2 impact of distribution, especially because they only have to be shipped to you once. E-readers, like other electronics, do emit carbon emissions in their production. But again, your ebook is only being created one time in exchange for many books.

The other truth: Many people just prefer holding a physical book. In that case, there are still ways to be more conscious about where you buy books and what organizations you support in the process.

Local and Used Bookstores

Local bookstores are a great place to find new and used books. Used books, in particular, are one of the best options for sustainable reading, because you’re not contributing to new trees being cut down or supporting industries that add CO2 to the atmosphere.

If you’re seeking a new book, buying from a small bookshop rather than Amazon or another chain retailer can have a positive effect on your local community. IndieBound, a website from the American Booksellers Association, has a search tool where you can find local bookstores near you.

You can also use Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and help them stay afloat as Amazon continues to edge out small shops. Bookshop also has curated lists put together by bookshops and organizations, so it can be a helpful place to find new books to read and discover underrepresented voices or stories you might not otherwise have known about.

Libraries and Library Cards

You’re no stranger to the library, but did you know that you can rent ebooks and audiobooks with your public library card, all without stepping foot inside the actual library?

Libby is an app that takes your library card information and allows you to browse books digitally. You can also add yourself to a waitlist for a popular book, or save books to your wishlist. This is perhaps the most low-impact way to read books, because you’re not contributing to the production of a physical book, and you’re only borrowing something that many other people will read.

Another way to get books from the library is from a library sale. Public libraries and their associated nonprofits often hold book sales seasonally to clean out their inventory and make room for new books. These books have been read multiple times, and you’re supporting your local library in the process. This is also a great way to find books from local authors.

Books are an essential element of human culture, and the stories they tell have the ability to unite us, help us, and heal us. Taking steps to make your own reading more sustainable can ensure that you enjoy these benefits while reducing the major environmental impact of books.

About the Author

Michelle Polizzi is an independent writer and storyteller with 7 years of experience creating content online. Her writing has appeared in leading publications like Bitch, WELL+GOOD, Insider, and Healthline, and she covers topics like sustainable living, mental health, and intersectional feminism. Currently, she's pursuing an MFA in creative writing.