Buying a new mattress is a big investment, and knowing where to go to find the best options for your health and for the planet—not to mention for a sound night's sleep— is key. We get the process started with our list of the 10 best sources for organic and all-natural mattresses:
Background Info:
Most conventional mattresses are made of petroleum-based polyester, nylon and polyurethane (PU) foam (all of which emit VOCs, especially when new) and treated with flame-retardant (FR) chemicals, such as boric acid, silicone and phosphates. They can also be wrapped in barrier cloths made from flame-resistant fibers, such as melamine and polyvinylidene chloride.
What To Look For:
Look for mattresses that are made with:
• All-natural, untreated wool, which is naturally fire-and-dust-mite-resistent, and preferably labeled "Pure Grow Wool," which ensures that the wool has come from humanely treated and organically raised sheep.
• Organic cotton: used as both a wrapping material and as batting. Organic cotton is not fire-resistant, so in order to company with the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the cotton is usually wrapped in wool layers.
• Natural latex, derived from rubber trees, which is a better choice than petroleum-based polyurethane.
The Top Eco Mattress Sources:
1 Keetsa: If you're looking for an eco-friendly, all-natural and/or recyclable latex mattress, then Keetsa is your answer. Keetsa's latex mattresses are made with non-toxic materials like wool, latex foam, unbleached cotton, bamboo blend and organic cotton fabrics. Their mattresses are compressed, covered in biodegradable plastic, and packed into 100% recyclable boxes printed with water soluble ink. Price: $440-$2,200
2 Hastens: Renowned Swedish mattress masters Hästens make each one of their mattresses by hand using only hard-wearing natural materials like horsehair, flax, wool, steel and pine, and each mattress comes with a 25-year warranty. And all the mattresses come in juicy colors and checkered patterns. Price: $4,000 -$23,000
3 Woodstock Organic Mattress: Based in Manhattan and Kingston, NY and featuring mattresses made by WJ Southard, another family-run and family-owned business located in Syracuse, all of Woodstock's mattresses are handmade of 100% natural materials like organic cotton, wool, horsehair, and 98% pure latex. No polyester, polyurethane foam, or other harmful chemicals are used in the making or production of the mattresses. As they say, if they can't pronounce it, they won’t put it in your mattress. Price: $799-$6,000
4 Pure Rest: Pure Rest is a family company that only sells online, and their mattresses are about as healthy as they come: organic and additive-free wool and cotton, and all natural latex. No plastic outers, no finishes, no additives. They even have a 3rd party test every year for contamination in their mattresses and disclose the results on their website. Price: $699 and up
5 Savvy Rest: organic mattresses made in central Virginia and available through a national network of independently owned stores. All mattresses are made of natural latex rubber, certified organic wool or certified organic cotton, and are natural, nontoxic, certified and independently tested. Price: $1,749-$3,399
6 Organic Mattress Store: an online retailer carrying a variety of all-natural mattress vendors, including Nature's Finest, WJ Southard, GreenSleep, Royal Pedic, and Sheperd's Dream, all of which carry certified organic cotton, wool and latex mattresses that have met the strict standards of the USDA National Organic Program. Price: Variable depending on brand
7 White Lotus: a great source for healthy bedding, including natural latex mattresses, organic wool and cotton mattresses, all handmade in the US. Click here for a chart on how their handmade mattresses compare with conventional mattresses, and click here for their detailed FAQ section. Price: Start around $500
8 The Wool Bed Company: all of the wool bedding products products include only materials raised or grown on farmland in the USA. The natural wool mattresses are hand-made, free-form, without any wood, metal, foam or latex. Price: $899-$1,699
9 Cozy Pure: claims they are the only bedding company in the world to utilize a trio-system of Wind, Solar and Geothermal on-site in their factory in Norfolk, VA. Feature 7 collections, all made with natural latex, wool and GOTS-Certified organic cotton, no foams, dacrons, formaldehydes or PBDEs, or other toxic chemicals, as certified by third-party safety tests. Price: $824-$5,495
10 Heart of Vermont: all mattress components, including coverings, paddings, binding tapes, and insulator pads, are made with 100% organic cotton, grown without pesticides or chemical fertilization. Featuring natural top mattresses, organic innerspring mattresses, and organic mattress sets. Find out more about the specifics of their mattresses here. Price: $1,500-$3,600
Related Post: Tips for Buying a Green Mattress?
(Image: A Hastens mattress, as reviewed by Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan. Originally published 2010-09-23)
Dirty Little Secrets of Tidy Families
Hillary & Michael's Refined Roost
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Sprout Side Table
Kitchen Before & After: A Cookbook Author Transforms His 1950s Kitchen
Recipe: Ham, Cheddar & Chive Egg Bakes
My husband and I bought a natural latex mattress three years ago (just a slab of latex foam topped with a two inch wool topper plus a thin organic cotton pad on top of that to keep the wool clean and dry), and though it cost about $1200 for a queen, it was an awesome investment. It is so, so, comfortable--perfectly firm and soft--and there's no bouncy effect when the other person turns over. It's expected to last twenty years or more. In fact, my grandmother has had one for 25 years. The best part is that I feel great knowing I'm not inhaling chemicals when I sleep. If you're skeptical, take it from my parents who couldn't care less about the planet that latex is the way to go. They are super-early risers, but slept two hours late in our bed, waking up exclaiming about how comfy it is. We got ours in Seattle at Soaring Heart Natural Bed Co.
Oh how I would love to own an Essentia!! Would never purchase a synthetic memory foam, totally toxic!! This is a great natural alternative I have heard.
We plan on purchasing a Savvy Rest for our son's first twin bed. I have heard great things about them as well.
I have the same thing at sshutterbug from Soaring Heart Natural Beds in Seattle. It's great.
I used to have a more conventional style latex mattress. Not only did I not like it as well, but it was heavy as anything and hard to move, turn, flip, etc. The sort of "layered" bed, like the Soaring Heart one or the Haastens, is easier to flip and rotate and such.
I became very frustrated while shopping for an organic mattress. I thought it was not fair that it cost so much to sleep chemical free! I ended up making my own mattress and I am so glad I did. I found organic buckwheat hulls have just the right amount of give and support. My first night sleeping on my hand made bed, I though this is what Kings and Queens must have slept on! I now have a small shop on Etsy where I make organic, buckwheat hull mattress toppers for others who would like to create their own mattresses- Read my full story here - http://www.etsy.com/shop/openyoureyesbedding
Natural latex is only made in a few factories wround the world. The (e)retailers are selling the same basic thing.
We went with Habitat Furnishings for ours. They have a good return policy (and I read reviews of people using it).
My husband and I bought a mattress from the Organic Mattress Store in PA. It is located one state away, but I'm so glad we made the trip. It did make a difference for us to go test them out. We eneded up buying a different mattress than we planned.
I really enjoy the latex mattress we have. We do make sure to rotate it each season. We used this tip, which was very helpful. http://www.marthastewart.com/good-things/mattress-rotation-reminder?backto=true&backtourl=/photogallery/25-bedroom-organizers
For Michigan readers looking for a local option, my mother sells organic mattresses with Amish-made beds from her business, Down to Earth.
I just bought a bed from Cozy Pure. I had had a Stearns and Foster mattress and boxspring for 10 years that served me really well and now that it was time for a new one I agonized about which mattress to buy. I ended up buying a relatively inexpensive (compared to their other ones--mine was $1500) Queen Size latex mattress and I love it! Love. Extremely comfortable and I sleep like the dead. Also the customer service was really great, very helpful in helping me to figure out whether a mattress might work for me since I couldn't go down to try it out in person. I also like that they offer vegan options, that I didn't see on other sites like the Organic Mattress Store.
I am in the market for a good either organic cotton/wool or 100% natural latex mattress and made in the USA.
So this topic is appreciated.
Keesta mattresses only offer one Latex mattress the rest are memory foam. That's a polyurethane, oil-based product, and terribly eco-harmful. It's true that Keetsa adds "tea" leaves and a few other natural ingredients to the memory foam, that doesn't make the product green. Their mattresses are made in China.
I found out from a review "The Keetsa no out-gassing of VOC's claim is based on one test only, run by a company in Korea (not the USA) on one piece of 'biofoam' back in 2008."
I am not bashing but I always look for back up and proof when a company claims they are eco friendly or green and where are their material coming from.
I am not interested in sleeping on a pile if chemicals and don't mind paying extra for a mattress that is made in the USA with as many eco friendly materials as possible.
I did find a company here in the Bay Area and made locally, The Natural Mattress Store.
I have not tested their mattresses yet hope to do so in the next week or two. It looks promising as to the materials used and price range looks good. I think their website in very informative as well.
http://www.thenaturalmattressstore.com/index.html
Another Northern California store I am looking into is Organic Pedic, lots of certifications, to back up their green story and made in the USA.
http://www.omimattress.com/Certifications.php
If anyone has had experience with either one of these companies and their mattresses I would love to hear back.
My husband and I bought our queen mattress and a twin for our son made by OMI. They don't sell directly. We purchased them from a store in Seattle. It has been a great experience. We are very pleased with both mattresses. We ordered pillows and mattress protectors from Shepherd's Dream in California. Who we almost purchased mattresses from before we decided on OMI. Saving for some comforters and maybe a dog bed from them too.
We purchased a latex mattress made by Pure Rest Naturals. They are a trustworthy source for non-toxic products. I shopped around and got the best price from Goodnightroom NYC - they are an online shop with excellent customer service.
I can recommend organicgrace.com . We've purchased two matresses there and like both. At the very least, they are very knowledgeable about green-washing claims. I suggest at least talking to them by phone before you purchase.
I would recommend essentia too! It's also important to know the cons of latex mattresses but generally the pros outweight the cons. Very good for those who suffer from ashma, but important to buy one worth its salt. check out the guarantee as well
@b77, if you're still checking this thread, you might want to check out the organic mattresses from Flo Beds up in Fort Bragg. They've received a lot of good reviews.
I am so surprised to see that Lifekind is not on the list. We bought our king mattress from LifeKind around 5 years ago and we LOVE it! The company is located in CA and the mattresses are talalay rubber covered in organic cotton/wool. The company was extremely helpful in narrowing our mattress choice down...we got the euro and it is perfect!
Great list of the top companies providing natural/organic mattresses and bedding. It can be so hard to research companies online, especially since the words "natural" and "organic" are used far too liberally on most sites.
So glad to see Savvy Rest on there! I've heard nothing but good things and they not only are incredibly up front about exactly how their mattresses are made, but they have great organic mattress options for the price!
We just ordered a King Koil/Comfort Solutions mattress called the Natural Elegance St. Barts. Now we're having cold feet because we can't find any reviews of the bed. Do you know ANYTHING about this bed? Is it actually green, or just a scam? Is this a current product, or were we sold a discontinued mattress? Moreover, we'd love to know about the durability/customer service, if anyone has any info. Thank you!!!
I recently bought an almost all organic components bed from MY GREEN MATTRESS, called Echo Pure. It was on the inexpensive side and looks and feels well made. It's quite firm--which is fine by me--but I plan to get a down or latex topper to make it a bit softer, since it's in the guest room.
If you live in the UK and you are looking for a good organic mattress then British made Abaca Organic Mattresses are very good! They have a fine collection of organic natural latex, organic pocket prung and pocket/latex combi organic mattresses all certified by the Soil Association :-)
It's interesting (and disturbing) to see so much mis-information about organic and so-called "green" mattresses. Many companies are taking advantage of consumers by making "green" claims that are completely false and there seems to be no regulation.
Many of the CERTIFICATIONS that are being posted on websites don't really mean that a product or company has been certified by anyone. They can often just mean that a membership to their organization has been paid for. While some companies have wonderful intentions and some certifications do have some value, do your research as many are worthless. Try to look for specific test results or documentation regarding a manufacturers components, not just a blanket seal of approval for the manufacturer or retailer.
I was the first US retailer of well known Hastens Beds. I believed that they were organic and that they treated the horses for their horsehair humanely, but even that is now up for debate.
I am compiling info (and my opinions) on the array of ingredients being used in the "natural" mattress industry as well as the truth behind the certifications. My goal is to develop a guide to help educate people as they navigate this confusing industry.
I encourage people to send me questions and comments to jklein@organicsleep.com
I'll be putting all the info I gather at www.organicsleep/forum
Any and all input would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Jeff Klein
Sleep etc
CORRECTION: the correct web address of the organic mattress blog is
http://www.organicsleep.com/blog/
http://www.NestBedding.com for truly affordable organic and non-toxic mattresses and bedding in the SF Bay Area. And NOT made in China
I was surprised not to see Plushbeds natural latex mattresses on this list. They use only natural latex, the organic cotton, and the wool as a fire barrier as outlined in this article, and they are pretty visible in the mattress community and such. They seem to also have a pretty good reputation for customer satisfaction. We based our purchase from them quite a bit from past customer input. Maybe it's because this article was written quite a long time ago before Plushbeds became as prominent as they are now.
I would agree with those of Keetsa, good product but it is still Chinese manufactured foam so probably does not deserve to be number 1 on the list.(I know this list is old). There has been a lot of changes since this post in 2010. If we at the organic bedroom can help any of you we carry several brands and offer free nationwide shipping on most our products. www.theorganicbedroom.com