Sustainable swap: natural fibre mattresses
Buying a new mattress this weekend? Up your home’s eco-friendly factor by choosing a natural fibre filling.
Image: John Lewis & Partners
Experts recommend you should replace your mattress every 7 to 10 years, so if yours is approaching nearly a decade of existence, you might be thinking about investing in a new one. But have you given any thought to how you’ll dispose of your old mattress?
According to Button & Sprung co-founder Adam Black, just 19% of mattresses are currently recycled in the UK. “It’s having a terrible effect on the environment,” he explains. “Polyeurethane foam does not biograde and so, at the end of its life, is sent to landfill where it takes thousands of years to break down.”
The TFR Group estimates that 7.5 million mattresses go to landfill every year in the UK, and because of regulations around the disposal of these bulky items, as many as 600,000 mattresses ave been fly-tipped in the UK over the past 5 years.
Making a swap to a sustainable mattress made from natural materials means you’re investing in a recyclable product, so that you can sleep easy knowing you’ve made an environmentally sound choice. Here’s some of our favourite sustainable buying options.
John Lewis & Partners
Image: John Lewis & Partners
John Lewis & Partners has really upped its eco-bedding offering of late. As well as producing its first biodegradable duvet, the high street retailer launched its first own-brand natural material mattresses this summer. Made from textiles such as hemp and a tree-fibre based viscose, these mattresses have been specially designed with recycling in mind – they can be easily broken down and the materials re-used at the end of a mattress’s life. John Lewis also offers a service to collect old mattresses and divans to dispose of them responsibly, from £29.95.
Button & Sprung
Image: Button & Sprung
Self-proclaimed ‘foamaphobes’ when it comes to their mattresses, Button & Sprung only produce products with natural fillings, such as silk, wool, hemp, cashmere and mohair. As well as being sustainable and free from harmful chemicals, these materials offer great temperature regulation and moisture control properties for a comfortable night’s sleep,
Woolroom wool mattresses
Image: Woolroom
According to Woolroom, scientific studies suggest that a wool mattress can contribute to feeling refreshed and revived when you wake up in the morning: “Research suggests that wool bedding can actually help provide up to 25% more stage four regenerative sleep – the point at which our body is thought to do the most repair and regeneration of cells.” Wool is also temperature regulating, naturally flame retardant and hypoallergenic, and has a structure that can absorb volatile organic compounds (often found in paint and cleaning products) from the air.
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