This week, our Sustainable Product of the Week is the Avocado Green Mattress topper. One of our mattresses transfers body roll and needs to be replaced. Everyone who sleeps on that mattress has body aches in the morning. In an effort to salvage the mattress for a few more months while we save up to replace it, I started looking at mattress toppers. We settled on the Avocado Green Mattress Organic Latex Mattress Topper. It’s not the cheapest, with a starting price of $349 for a Twin size. It does have excellent sustainability, excellent reviews, locally made in the USA, and we feel it’s improved our sleep most importantly. Let’s take a look.
Organic materials
The Avocado mattress topper uses organic cotton, organic wool, and organic latex. The latex adheres to GOLS (Global Organic Latex Standard), which means the material uses at least 95% natural latex. The wool and cotton meets the GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard). GOTS is the worldwide leading standard for organic fibers, which includes ecological and social criteria, backed up by independent certification of the entire supply chain.
Natural, temperature controlling materials
One of our older twin mattresses used memory foam. I didn’t know at the time that certain memory foams sleep hot. Memory foams can be made of polyurethane foams, and polyurethanes can be considered a community plastic due to their high production volumes. Most plastics are derived from oil production. A good, temperature controlling mattress should wick away moisture and cool your body. We have two hot sleepers in the family. It was important to me that the mattress topper made them more comfortable while sleeping and avoided using oil-based memory foams.
The mattress topper we bought includes wool. According to Avocado, “Wool wicks away moisture, adds bounce, and allows air to circulate naturally. This helps keep you cool when it’s warm and warm when it’s cool.” For those opposed to using animal products, Avocado has a vegan version with no wool available. The addition of natural latex is “an eco-conscious, high-performance material, offering resilience, durability, and temperature control that far exceeds synthetic, blended, or petroleum-based polyurethane foams.”
Safe and non-toxic
What good is a mattress if it emits harmful volatile, organic chemicals (VOC’s)? None. Those compounds are the new car smell you get as the plastics air out. These chemicals contribute to indoor air quality being much worse than outside. They are harmful to our health. Avocado products are MADE SAFE Certified, a rigorous process that forbids the use of ingredients that harm human health, animals, aquatic life or ecosystems. The company meets GREENGUARD Gold Certified by UL Environment. This means a product is certified for low chemical emissions. On their website, Avocado says the following.
We don't use petroleum-based polyurethane foams, memory foams, chemical adhesives, or chemical fire retardants.
When we opened up our new mattress topper, there was no smell detected. That’s a win for all of us.
Made in California
Some may wonder why local production is a benefit. It’s simple, locally produced products support local workers and reduce transportation costs across the supply chain. Cargo carrying ships burn bunker fuel, which is the cheapest, dirtiest fuel allowed. Since most of the world doesn’t consider pollution an added cost, polluters have no incentive to use cleaner fuels. The cynics and liars among us may tell us pollution and adding CO2 to the atmosphere is an added benefit to the world. It’s not.
Climate neutral
Looking at Avocado’s site, they are proud that they are the world’s first mattress brand to be Climate Neutral Certified. That means any carbon dioxide created in the production process are completely offset. Their factory is 100% renewable energy powered. Since 2019, they have offset more than 53,700 tons of CO2. They rub it in with everyone else by saying they actually offset more CO2 emissions than they produce, which is impressive. It’s a focus on not only a quality end-product but baking in quality and sustainability through their entire process. This was another benefit for us which we didn’t see with other mattress firms.
Warranty
The warranty is fairly standard. After owning the topper for 30 days, if you don’t like it, you can return it for a refund within 365 days. The limited warranty is good for 10 years.
Summary
In line with our commitment to only write about what we own, we’ve tried out the plush mattress topper for a week. We have tried it on the old bed that transfers body roll. The kids said the mattress is terrible by itself, and the mattress topper made it much more bearable, with better sleep and less body pain. The mattress needs to be replaced, and we’ll write about that when we choose one.
I moved our queen size topper to our medium firm, king sized bed. Not only are my wife and daughter sleeping more peacefully, they are sleeping cooler, with less movement. (We leave it to the user’s imagination on how much room I have left on the king sized bed with a queen sized mattress topper on the side.) Our next experiment is removing our linen covers and sleeping directly on the mattress topper.
I really like it the few times I slept on it. For this old frame, I have fewer aches and joint pain when I wake up. You sink in a bit, and it seems heavier parts sink in more. The end result is an evenly balanced cushion. Avocado recommends turning the mattress once a month, no flipping required. It’s high cost at $449 for a queen plush topper, no question. It’s a risk too, since I haven’t heard of the company before. We took a leap of faith when we bought it. Originally, we found it from US News on best mattresses. Given the quality of the product, their commitment to environmentally sound practices as a B Corp, and the benefits on better sleep, I view it as a worthwhile investment. I would recommend the topper and hope you consider the same or similarly sustainable companies when you buy your next mattress.
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Warmest regards,
smilingdad
smilingdad 