last updated: Feb 17, 2017The latest scam the mattress industry is fishing with is eco memory foam mattresses or plant-based foam mattresses. So what are these "soy mattresses" and "soy pillows" all about? Let the truth be known!Only 5-20% of the mattress is actually made up of plant-based ingredients like soy. That means over 80% is still petroleum based chemicals. This would be fine if companies marketed them as eco-friendly mattresses which contain X% of soy. However, companies mislead you, calling them eco memory foam mattresses or plant-based mattresses and pretend they're healthy, safe and natural.I guess saying it's 20% healthier for you wouldn't be as effective.Misleading the public into thinking products are green, natural or eco-friendly is called greenwashing. There is no monitoring of these claims.Natural memory foam mattresses do exist and we're the only ones who make them. They're made from rubber tree sap, NOT petroleum based chemicals. There is very little benefit to putting soy in a mattress.
In fact, the company behind soy-based ingredients called BiOH® polyols, is Cargill.Cargill is widely known for environmental and human rights abuse and is America's 4th worst polluter according to Environment America's 2016 report.Cargill is also the world's largest soybean processor and trader. Their soy-based ingredients are also genetically engineered.Genetically modified foods are still banned in 19 Europen countries and more than 40 countries now require GMO labeling. USA and Canada are not among them.3,800 barrels of oil are saved when 100,000 mattresses are manufactured with soy-based foam. You'd expect considerable savings for the consumer right? Soy-based memory foam mattresses or bio-foam mattresses are actually more expensive than regular memory foam even though they cost less to produce. Companies overcharge since they can promote the “eco-friendly” characteristics.Replacing a portion of the chemicals in foam makes it 5-20% healthier. Is 5-20% good enough?No.
The expansion of soy plantations in countries such as Brazil and Argentina means that rainforests are being completely slashed and burned, eliminating critical habitats for many plants and animal species.Every day 86,400 football fields of rainforest are cut down to mainly make room for livestock, soy, palm, and corn.Genetically modified soy accounts for 94% of all soy grown in the United States as of 2012.People who’ve purchased eco memory foam mattresses are experiencing strong chemicals odors, smells or off-gassing.Soy does not produce this odor, the odor derives from the harsh chemicals used to make these synthetic foams. Green tea extract or industrial perfumes are often added as an attempt to mask the odor.Eco memory foam mattresses are often wrapped in bamboo fabric. The percentage of bamboo is anywhere from 20-60% bamboo.Bamboo fabrics are far from eco-friendly. It takes so much processing the final product is considered man-made, so they're not biodegradable.According to the OTA, Organic Trade Association, "bamboo may be a more ecologically sensitive source of feedstock for rayon production, the rayon itself is not distinguishable from rayon produced from any other feedstock, and uses a lot of toxic chemicals in the process.
So while the bamboo itself may be considered environmentally friendly, the production of rayon is not, and the public should not be misled into thinking that the bamboo-derived fiber can be considered "natural" - it is clearly synthetic. There are a lot of misconceptions about the "natural" label too, whether it is related to food or textile products."Soy memory foam mattresses and soy pillows have been seen on QVC in the U.S. and The Shopping Channel in Canada. Many brands sell eco memory foam mattresses. Chances are your local store probably has a bio memory foam brand. It may also be marketed under plant-based mattress, coconut foam, biofoam, eco foam mattress or eco-friendly memory foam mattress.The foam industry is very small. There are only a handful of companies in the USA making polyurethane foams and memory foam. Almost all mattress companies buy from one of these manufacturers or import foam from Europe or China. The rest is marketing.If you've made it this far, well done. You’re now a little more equipped when the mattress salespersons tell you “it’s plant based memory foam”.
If you want the real deal, check out the only natural memory foam mattresses in the world.We make them in Canada and offer free shipping throughout the U.S.A and Canada.For more information, please visit our Learning Center. Spring Break for Grown-ups 5 Key Words Every Spiritual Person Needs to Know The 7 Books Every Spiritual Person Needs to Read How to Survive a Rainy Day with Children: A Summer Guide "I Will Never Know Why" 10 Airport Secrets That Only Insiders Know Count Sheep, Not Harmful Synthetics: How to Find an Eco-Friendly Mattress The Best Travel Advice We've Ever Heard 5 Unforgettable Hostess Gifts The Allure of Traveling Alone Meet 15 Guys Who Are Saving the World 6 Ways to Avoid a Fight While on Vacation Found in Translation: How I Got Rid of My Shyness in 7 Days Hiding in Plain Sight: Inside the Life of an Undocumented Immigrant Whose Armrest Is It Anyway? Meet Your New Therapist. He's Wise, Compassionate...and Likes to Eat Hay
An Amateur Rancher Brings the Wastelands of the Southwest Back to Life 15 Photos That Remind Us How Big the Universe Is 7 Green Cleaners That Really Work Of all the things in my home that I've worried are bad for the environment, my mattress is one I'd never lost any sleep over. Until recently—after my linebacker-size boyfriend, Peter, moved in, and created a deep canyon on his side of the bed. I was waking up grumpy, with backaches from the strain of staying level. I'd bought the bed a decade before, shortly after my divorce. Now, with a new man in my life, I decided I was ready for a new mattress. Around that time, I visited my parents and slept on their new pull-out couch. But instead of peaceful slumber, it felt as if I were being gassed by the mattress's smell. I opened a window but tossed all night, worried about the toxic fumes I might be inhaling. Mattresses, I soon learned, are rarely ecologically innocent. Most are made with synthetic fibers or foam, which don't biodegrade.
Cotton or wool stuffing can be processed with pesticides and other chemicals—some of them potentially carcinogenic. Considering I spend one-third of my life lying in bed, realizing this was fairly disquieting. The good news is that choices once limited to size and firmness now include environmental options as well. If you prefer an innerspring mattress—steel coils surrounded by layers of fluffy padding—you can rest easy on beds made from organic cotton and wool, with steel coils that aren't coated in chemicals. If, like me, you prefer a solid-foam mattress, you can opt for latex made from the milky sap of rubber trees. And though I worried that sleeping on something made from coconut husk fibers or natural rubber would feel like napping in Gilligan's hut, when I test-drove the beds, my back couldn't feel the difference. Here are three tips from my eco-mattress hunt. The smell that kept me awake at my parents' house is a cocktail of chemicals, including volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which are associated with skin irritation and respiratory problems.
Walter Bader, author of Sleep Safe in a Toxic World and cofounder of Organic Mattresses Inc., sent a conventional mattress to a lab that measured its emissions and found 61 VOCs. "Mattresses are like cigarettes were in the 1930s," Bader says. "Completely unregulated, and everyone thinks they're safe." Experts, though, remain divided about what exposure levels pose a danger. Berkeley-based toxicologist Janet Weiss, MD, who has studied these chemicals, says, "Like the new-car smell, mattress smells aren't hazardous." Others argue that exposure should be limited as possible. "Although the amount people inhale is incredibly small, the exposure adds up," says epidemiologist Devra Lee Davis, PhD, of the Environmental Health Trust. Choosing organic materials is one of the best ways to cut the toxins you inhale while sleeping. Fumes are strongest in the first few weeks, so it also helps if you can let your new bed air out in a spare room or garage before using it. Ask for the Real Credentials
There is no government certification for eco-friendly mattresses. "Manufacturers use the terms green and natural however they want, and there isn't much standardization," says Sonya Lunder, a senior analyst at the Environmental Working Group. While shopping, I found mattresses made with castor oil, aloe vera, green-tea infusions, and bamboo—and labeled every variation of green, eco-, organic, and natural. It takes some sleuthing to push past the green stickers and figure out what really goes into a mattress. I tried out one "eco-friendly" memory-foam mattress in a store that was plastered with green leaf symbols. A salesperson offered me piping hot green tea, but when I pressed her on what was so green about their mattress, she explained that more than 10 percent of the oils in the petroleum-based memory foam had been replaced with plant-based oils. So the product wasn't exactly green, just 10 percent greener. "We're the hybrid cars of the mattress world," she said. "We're still burning gas, but it's better than a regular car."
Yet to many shoppers, the company's beds appear just as pure as those made by rigorously green Organic Mattresses, Inc., a company Bader started because of his chemical sensitivities (the handcrafted creations are made from cruelty-free wool, certified organic cotton, and 100 percent natural rubber latex in a facility where no one is allowed to smoke, wear fragrances, or wear fabric softeners). When shopping, ignore words like eco- and natural. Instead, seek out companies that explain ingredients clearly and can point to where materials are sourced. Even better, look for third-party certification" Oeko-Tex Standard 100 is the largest voluntary third-party certification for textiles free of harmful substances, and Global Organic Textile Standard certifies that a natural fiber was grown organically and processed sustainably. Find a Comfortable Compromise If I had a $3,000 budget, I'd be on a virtuous mattress made by Organic Mattresses in a heartbeat. But there's only so much I can spend on my back health and eco-consciousness.
I decided I wanted a memory-foam mattress that replaced some of the usual synthetic latex with soy. And after careful research, I bought it from Magniflex, an Italian company, because its bona fides were so impressive: Its memory foam is 30 percent plant oils, one of the highest percentages in the industry; it uses water to expand the memory foam rather than relying only on solvents, like most companies; and it created a flame retardant derived from sea sand, saving me from more chemical additives. The company's textiles are Oeko-Tex certified, and it uses GOTS-certified cotton. When Peter and I lay down on the $1,600 mattress, I knew I'd done what I could to make my bed more eco-friendly, and as a result, I sleep just fine. Next: Check out 3 smart choices for eco-bedding What's the Eco-Impact of Your Everyday Choices? 5 Wallet-Friendly Habits You Can Steal from Eco-Experts Clean Power: Lisa Jackson Fights for Our Right to Healthy Air, Water and Land 11 Ways to Save Your Planet