Green Options

Ever wonder what you could do with an old mattress? It’s pretty easy to think of ways to reused discarded clothing and bottles and cans, but a mattress?

That is the challenge set forth in Open Architecture Network’s contest: Discarded Dreams.

With over 40 million mattresses discarded every year in the U.S., this challenge asks that over 80% of the mattress be reused. Careful consideration should be made to the mattress’ deconstruction, as the Open Architecture Network is looking for a way to divert these mattresses away from the landfill and into new life.

The first time I slept on a memory foam mattress, I was in heaven. When it was time to buy a new bed, I was thrilled to find out about a new green company called Essentia, who makes the only natural memory foam mattresses on the market. Most memory foam mattresses are made of petroleum products, which are not only harmful to the environment, they’re unnatural and unhealthy. I want my bed to be a place of sanctuary and rest, not a chemical-laden nest of disease! Luckily, Essentia makes it possible to sleep healthy and green without sacrificing comfort or quality.

My Essentia mattress arrived in a much smaller box than I was expecting, due to their sustainable shipping efforts. The mattresses are compressed and rolled so they will take up less space on shipping trucks. But this is just the beginning of Essentia’s environmental commitment:

At Essentia, we fully understand the responsibilities of being a manufacturer in today’s society. That’s why we develop and manufacture products that produce 93% less waste during production than most mattress manufacturers. Derived from renewable resources, our 100% biodegradable memory foam are good for both the environment and consumer health.

My husband and I are quite pleased with our brand-new king size mattress.  It’s firm, yet comfy, and because we also indulged in some new down pillows, we are sleeping much better these days.  But what should we do with the old mattress?  I know the mattress delivery company removes it, but I am sure that they just send it to a landfill.  I would like to dispose of our [...]

Editor’s note: Today, we’re pleased to launch a new content partnership with daily email tip provider Vital Juice Daily, "your entertaining, uplifting, convenient (oh, did we mention free?), go-to-source for all things healthy and wellthy." Every Tuesday, we’ll publish a tip from VJD, and tomorrow, we’ll start featuring "Ask VJD," their health and wellth advice column. Today’s tip was originally published on August 31, 2007.

Considering we spend 1/3 of our lives

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