A question that has been bothering me.

[Adriana Rose]

My mom and I are in the process of going through the stuff that we have had stored for 5 years and there are alot of elastic wasit bands that have gone crunchy and lost their strech. But on the other hand we have some of my great grandmothers sewing stuff and there is some elastic that she used to make my sister and I skirts with oh 20 years ago and that still has its spring.

So the question is why does some elastics go all crunchy and the others last forever? Is it just the older stuff is better made than the new or its just the nature of it?

You guys are the first that came to mind to answer this question.

[isabelladangelo]

It's probably just natural rubber versus synthetic.   Or perhaps a difference in two types of polymers.

[ArielCallista]

Temperature can have alot to do with it...stuff that is a temperature controlled environment lasts alot longer than that kept elsewhere. For example if you leave some in a box in the attic or garage thru the winter, its gonna snap pretty easily. But if its kept in a closet in your house where you keep it somewhere between 60 and 80 all the time, it doesn't have to deal with extremes of temperature and will last better.

I'm not sure if this is more or less valid with natural vs synthetic fibers.

[Lady L]

Yes, I and my Mom have had the same experience. What she made back in the 50s still has good stretch left, as the elastic was made from real rubber. The *elastic* one buys now, such as Walmart carries, doesnt' last more than a few years, at most.