What is an Organic Mattress?

Increasingly, companies are making mattresses that include organic cotton, organic wool, or other organic fiber. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Organic Program (USDA’s NOP) on May 20, 2011, issued a Policy Memorandum1 that clarifies how such organic fiber-containing products may be labeled. Below is an overview of the definitions and permissible claims companies using organic fibers may use.The bottom line is that mattress labels that imply or lead the consumer to believe that the final product is certified organic must meet either the USDA organic regulations or the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS). 

Manufacturing Process of Mattress

Mattress Rollator 

The Mattress Rollator is also designed to simulate approximately 10 years of normal use on amattress set. During testing, a 240 pound Hexagonal Shaped Roller passes back and forth acrossthe width of the mattress set 100,000 times at a pre-set speed. The test runs non-stop for approximately 3½ - 4 days. Upon completion, the surface condition and profile of the mattress setare evaluated and compared to results taken before the test. Additional measurements are takenagain after a 24 hour recovery period.

Labor Implications

In 2010, North America’s largest mattress recycler processed about 55,000 mattresses and 55,000 box springs with a staff of 15 fulltime employees (DR3 2012). This translates into one fulltime employee to process around 7,300 units (mattress or box spring) per year. We estimate that 4.2 million units of either mattresses or box springs are discarded in California every year, but less than 5 percent are recycled. This means that currently fewer than 30 fulltime employees work in mattress recycling. The recycling of all 4.2 million units would require around 575 fulltime employees. Additional jobs would be created in the industries that process the secondary outputs of the mattress recyclers, i.e. the steel scrap, the polyurethane foam, the cotton, the cover (toppers), and the wood.

EPR Strategies for Mattresses and Box Springs

Collection and reprocessing The main objective of EPR initiatives is to increase manufacturers’ financial and operational responsibility for the take-back, recycling, and final disposal of their products (Geyer 2004). In the previous section we concluded that mattress and box spring recycling and component reuse generates significant energy and greenhouse gas benefits.