As a conscious consumer, there are lots of ways to fight the system and vote with your dollars for the type of world you want to live in. You can choose a more plant-based diet , drive an electric vehicle , and generally choose to leave the smallest footprint possible on the planet. But what about when you need to make a really large purchase, both figuratively and literally? When you finally get around to getting rid of your old mattress, it’s probably way past its prime. Most mattresses last only 10 years! And tossing our our beds is hugely wasteful: since many cities won’t allow them to be donated (for fear of bedbugs), they almost always end up in a landfill. In fact, it’s about 1.7 million mattresses that end up in landfills EVERYDAY. And unless you live in California, Connecticut, or Rhode Island (which have mattress recycling programs ), there are no options for recycling. So not only is it a lot of physical waste, but during their lifetime and after, conventional mattresses are really toxic . Mattresses are usually made of polyurethane foam (a petrochemical-based chemical that off-gasses volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the place where […]
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