Hi lefteye,
I am searching for the best "green" bed for the money, and am leaning toward a latex bed or combination of memory foam and latex.
My priorities are:
As natural material as possible (it's difficult to tell what is greenwashing and what is legit :-/ )
Should be very firm and supportive, I'm a back sleeper and an athlete with a frequent soar back
Willing to pay $$$ but want to ensure it will last if it's more money
Does anyone have any recommendations?
"Green" is mostly about marketing in the mattress industry and doesn't have a specific definition.
Post #4 here
may be helpful to answer the question of "how green is green enough for me?" and help you separate fact from fiction. I don't know of any way to "assign" a green rating to a mattress based on a cradle to grave assessment outside of making "apples to apples" comparisons of the same or similar materials.
I would also make sure you've read the
tutorial post here
which has all the basic information, steps, and guidelines you will need to make the best possible choices ... and know how and why to avoid the worst ones.
There is no such thing as a "best" mattress in general because "best" depends on the parts of each person's
personal value equation
that are most important to them. There is only "best" for each individual person and their individual criteria.
1) Paramount Nature's Spa Firm Queen, ~1700 set w/box spring
The only "green" bed I've been able to try locally is the Paramount Nature's Spa Therapy, which I believe was the lowest end of the three beds they make. It felt very nice but I am not able to find many reviews for this bed. Also it seems pricey compared to others and it doesn't seem to have a lot of latex. I was quoted 1600 for the queen and box spring (which does look very nice).
www.hibernatebedding.com/collections/nat...spa-therapy-mattress
Unfortunately they don't list the specifics of the materials in the mattress so I would need more information to make any meaningful comments about the mattress (see
this article
).
2) Ultimate Dream (Amazon)
$611 (CHEAP!) Good review, not a lot of latex but overall positive reviews
Not easy to understand how green this is. I've read some positive things but I'm hesitant to buy a bed I cannot try first.
www.amazon.com/DreamFoam-Mattress-Ultima...1WT70GAMG9SA034KQEXA
As you probably know ... Dreamfoam and their sister company Brooklyn Bedding are one of the members of this site which means that I think very highly of them and they compete well with the
best in the industry
. They are also completely transparent about the materials they use in their mattress (in this case blended Talalay latex and polyfoam) so you can make meaningful comparisons to other similar mattresses.
3) Plushbed Natural Bliss Natural Latex
$2000 for queen set
www.plushbeds.com/Natural-Bliss-Natural-Latex-Mattress.html
Seems priciest option, although maybe worth it if it will truly last and is as green as they advertise.
Plushbeds uses good quality materials and is certainly "better than average" value compared to most mainstream mattresses that use similar materials but I would make some careful value comparisons with some of the online retailers/manufacturers that are linked in the tutorial post and have similar mattresses that offer more options or lower prices for similar mattresses. A forum search on
Plushbeds
(you can just click this) will bring up more information about them.
If you let me know your city or zip code I'd also be happy to let you know of any of the better options or possibilities I'm aware of in your area.
Phoenix