When you’re shopping for a new mattress risk-free home trial, it’s vital to understand the various mattress certifications available in the US market: GOLS Certified Organic Latex, GOTS Global Organic Textile, OEKO-TEX, USDA Organic Certification and GreenGuard Gold. In this fashion, you can be sure of what you’re buying and whether it’s free of harmful chemicals.
Consider shopping for your new mattress trial that has earned the following certifications:
- GOLS or Global Organic Latex Standard. Any organic latex product that carries this GOLS certification meets very specific standards, which affect a variety of aspects of the life cycle of latex that include: manufacturing, processing, packaging, labeling, trading and distribution. With GOLS certified mattresses, they must contain at least 95% certified organic raw materials.
- GOTS or Global Organic Textile Standard. GOTS Certification is the world processing standard for organic textiles and fibers, backed by the full textile supply chain’s independent certification. The goals of this world standard are to define globally recognized requirements, and to ensure the organic status. This ranges from harvesting raw materials through socially and environmentally responsible manufacturing up to providing labels that ensure credibility to the final consumers. USDA Organic Certification. Materials that qualify for this certification are comprised of at least 95% organic materials and no harmful chemicals. USDA organic standards are verified by independent evaluators who have the public interest in mind – rather than organizations that are paid for their services.
- OEKO-TEX’s STANDARD 100 is for finished, semi-finished, and raw textile products, at all levels of processing. This Standard 100 contributes to effective and high product safety, always from the point of view of the final consumer.
- GREENGUARD GOLD has a specific focus on emissions standards for the mattress industry, and it also focuses on safety standards for the children and elderly. A rigorous series of tests and standards are implemented and new mattresses must meet (or exceed) these standards, in order to receive the well-respected distinction of becoming a mattress with this certification.
As a final consumer, it’s very important to research the raw materials used for each layer of your new certified mattress. And the way to go about is to look for those third-party certifications for these materials mentioned above. Such certifications are issued by independent organizations after they’ve inspected the raw material and/or final product and they’ve independently established that it complies with set standards for quality, performance and safety.
This takes us to the issue of sustainability. You see, there are many things that make mattress materials sustainable:
- Made from ethically renewable, sourced, natural and organic resources, that grow abundantly and swiftly
- No chemical fertilizers used in the growing process
- No use of chemical pesticides when growing the rubber trees
- Durable, long lasting, and
- 100% recyclable
- Responsible manufacturing
Natural latex mattresses are popular not only for their sustainable and healthy materials, but also for their comfort. Natural latex is a biological byproduct of the rubber tree, and begins as a milky liquid, derived from tapping live rubber trees, which grow around the world in tropical climates. Such trees are not harmed and they provide a sustainable resource for latex over the course of the tree’s natural lifespan (50+ years). It is a renewable, natural resource that is easily biodegradable.
Sustainability describes something critical when it comes to natural resources: replenishment. For example, for every tree that is cut down to create a mattress foundation, something must be done to replace such tree, or it’ll have a negative effect on our planet.
Sustainability takes this growth cycle of the tree into account. Mattress organizations that create sustainable products go to great lengths to ensure they use materials that grow abundantly, are robust and can be replenished quickly.
It’s more important than ever to shift focus when buying a new certified mattress to those made sustainably, and will make a tremendous difference in its quality and the effect such new mattress will have on our planet and the health of your family.
When you purchase a sustainable new certified mattress, you’re getting a product that will do the following:
- Conserve and protect natural resources. Sustainable materials are planted and harvested responsibly, with conservation of our planet’s limited resources in mind.
- Be kind to the planet. Sustainable mattresses contribute to reducing smog, global warming, deforestation and nutrient depletion of soil.
- Improve the health in your home. Because they are not contaminated with dyes, chemicals, and pesticides.
Certified Organic Natural Latex Mattresses are handcrafted using the highest quality, consciously-sourced, environmentally-friendly, certified organic raw materials, which come from renewable resources, and contain no chemicals, no fillers, no synthetic blends, no dyes, no carcinogenic adhesives, and no pesticides. Furthermore, such mattresses are also GOLS, GOTS, Oeko-Tex Standard 100 and GreenGuard Gold certified.
