Green Products

A good night’s sleep and for most of us that starts with sleeping with comfortable bedding and on a comfortable mattress, but for a range of reasons related to health and comfort concerns or simply to help preserve the environment, many people are looking for alternatives to mattresses and bedding primarily with man made materials. One solution a number of people are choosing is an organic mattress and bedding. 

What is organic  bedding and mattress’?

Bedding washes great and feels silky soft. Very lightweight organic cotton with all around elastic for safety. It comes in many bright colors and patterns to choose from.

A organic mattress is made completely from natural materials and according the National Association of Organic Mattress Industry (NAOMI) there are actually a number of quite stringent requirements for a mattress to be considered organic. Among them are

Mattress must be free of synthetic fibers
Any wool used in the mattress must be both from sheep raised according to organic standards and processed according to organic standards. As well, the wool cannot be treated with any chemicals suspected of being toxic and it must be tested free of arsenic and lead.
All cotton batting as well as any hidden inner fibers and fabrics must also be certified organic and processed according to organic standards.
Any rubber used must be tested free of benzene, toluene, phthalates, SBR, petroleum additives, formaldehyde, arsenic, plus, any glue used in manufacturing, must be free of formaldehyde and phenolated compounds.

When parents buy organic for their children, they almost always have the health and well being of their child in mind. After all, organic cloth is known to not only be softer and more luxurious, but it’s also less likely to harbor allergens. This type of clothing is particularly well suited to babies, because their skin is more sensitive anyway.

But any health benefits from buying organic baby clothing can be nullified if you don’t use the right kind of laundry detergent. Using harsh soap with chemical additives can cause minor or severe irritation to a baby’s skin, which is why the soap you use is just as important as the type of clothing you purchase. So if you don’t want to nullify all the positive effects of buying organic, make sure that your soap is equally eco-friendly.

When it comes to diapers, parents often run to the store and purchase the cheapest, quickest, and most convenient option possible. But parents should slow down for these kinds of purchases and make sure that they’re being careful to select something without harmful products or chemicals. One of those persistently harmful chemicals is chlorine.

Many disposable diapers use chlorine to bleach the pulp into its white color. While this might look nice and desirable when you purchase the product, it can create some very toxic and very harmful byproducts. And not surprisingly, the people that are most susceptible to these kinds of products are infants. That’s why so many parents are turning to chlorine free diapers. These are better for their environment, and they’re better for your baby.

Thousands of mattresses end up at the landfill each day. They pile up because they’re not made of materials that break down. 
 
The Organically Green Store sells organic mattresses and bedding.

All natural materials have a natural enzyme to go with it so they can break down naturally in the environment when their time is ready. Your petroleum products do not have that

There is only a handful of facilities in the U.S. that even try to recycle conventional mattresses.

All the materials in these “green” bedding and pillows come from Kapok to organic cotton and wool. They’re completely renewable and sustainable.

You’ll like sleeping on these organic mattresses.

It’s very breathable.  All natural materials breathe. We lose a pint of moisture every night when we sleep.  Where does that go…into your spongy mattress.  All of this breathes. It keeps your bed very dry and healthy, resistant to dust mites, mold and mildew. There’s no chemicals, no hazardous PBDEs and you’re not taking that in your lungs or your pores at night so it’s a very healthy sleep system as well..

It’s hoped that over the next 30 to 40 years when these mattresses lifespan is complete, there will be processes to recycle the material if they’re separated. 

The wool, the organic cotton, and the rubber from the rubber trees can be broken down so the mattress won’t take up landfill space.

While recent studies have documented the unique vulnerability of young children to chemical exposures, little is known about the extent to which environmental pollutants have contributed to disease in children in America. The most serious diseases confronting children in the United States are chronic, disabling illnesses that place an enormous burden on our health care resources. These include asthma, leukemia and other childhood cancers, and neurobehavioral disorders such as autism, mental retardation, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Recent studies on childhood illnesses suggest that many of these diseases are caused in part by exposure to environmental chemicals. Children are especially vulnerable to the thousands of high volume chemicals that contaminate our air, water, and food. Children receive proportionately larger doses of chemical toxicants than adults, and these exposures occur at a time when children’s organs and tissues are rapidly growing and developing.

NIEHS-supported researchers at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine estimated the contribution of environmental pollutants to the incidence, mortality and costs of four kinds of childhood diseases: lead poisoning, asthma, cancer, and neurobehavioral disorders. The researchers calculated the fraction of each disease that was attributable to environmental exposures, the prevalence of these diseases, and the size of the population at risk. Based on these factors, the researchers estimate the annual costs associated with environmentally related illness in American children to be approximately $54.9 billion. Of this amount, $43.4 billion is due to lead poisoning, $2.0 billion to asthma, $0.3 billion to childhood cancer, and $9.2 billion to neurobehavioral disorders. This figure amounts to nearly 3% of total U.S. health care costs.

These findings suggest that the costs of children’s environmental diseases are high in relation to the limited resources directed to research and prevention. This information will be useful in developing new strategies and guidelines for the detection and prevention of environmental illness in America’s children including more comprehensive testing of environmental chemicals, additional research on the causes of environmental illness, development of new methods for tracking pediatric diseases, and the allocation of resources needed to prevent pollution.

Many people nowadays are adhering to the cleaner or greener lifestyle.  They prefer organic food, supplements, cleaning products, and even clothing.  It is not even hard to find these products anymore because a lot of companies have now adhered to this green philosophy.  Some have defined being green by the way their products are made.  They clearly state that their products are not tested on animals, not manufactured in sweatshops or under inhumane conditions, and are organically grown.

You can now find organic baby clothes, bags, accessories, vitamins, soaps, and a lot more.  They make perfect gifts and are a great introduction to the green lifestyle.  It really is a great help in saving our environment.  And you are helping yourself as well.  You can be sure that you eat pesticide-free produce and wear “manufactured correct” clothes.

by Courtney Curtis,

There’s no doubt that the standards the USDA has imposed on organic cotton farmers has done our planet some good. After all, the whole concept of organic production is environmentally-centered. But, aside from the lessened eco-impact, is organic cotton any better for you?

Finding trendy clothes and stylish sheets certainly is a lot easier when you aren’t concerned with where they come from, right? Well, the value of shopping for organics is subjective to say the least, so check out these five ways organic cotton is grown differently, and decide for yourself if a little bit of tag-peeking is worth the difference:

1. It Starts with the Seeds

Photo credit: Terranova / Getty Images

If you think that conventional and organic cotton starts out the same way, I’m sorry to tell you you’re wrong. Actually, conventional cotton farmers don’t just start out with approximately 70% GMO, or genetically modified organism, seeds, but they also treat their seeds with fungicides and insecticides before planting. Organic farmers, however, use only untreated, non-GMO seeds for their cotton harvest.

2. Soil and Water: Where Cotton Grows Up

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Maybe the seeds are a little different, but they’re planted in the same earth and fed the same water, right? Wrong. Conventional cotton is planted in synthetic fertilizers, and there’s actually less soil because of a predominantly mono-crop culture. Incidentally, conventional cotton production requires intensive irrigation, adding wasteful water management to conventional cotton farming’s list of flaws.

Organic cotton farming, on the other hand, already has strong soil because of annual crop rotation, so no additional fertilizers are needed. The cotton crop also retains water more efficiently because of increased organic matter in the soil, which means organic farms play an important part in water conservation efforts.

3. Keeping the Weeds at Bay

Photo Credit: David McNew / Getty Images

Weeds can certainly be a crop’s worst enemy, so there’s no question they have to either be removed or destroyed. The conventional method calls for inhibiting weed germination by treating the soil with herbicides, a method that often requires several treatments to be effective. Organic cotton farming, however, requires that weeds be eliminated physically, not chemically. Organically, weeds are controlled exclusively through cultivation and hand hoeing.

4. Proper Pest Control

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Because conventional cotton production readily uses insecticides as its primary method of pest control, it accounts for approximately 25% of insecticide usage worldwide. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the nine most common pesticides used to produce common cotton are highly toxic, and five are probable carcinogens. Additionally, aerial spraying is a frequent method of distributing the chemicals and potential drift can be lethal.

Organic cotton production, however, avoids pesticide use altogether. On organic cotton farms a balance between pests and their natural predators is created through the presence and maintenance of healthy soil. Organic farms also uses beneficial insects instead of insecticides to control pests.

5. From Harvesting to Your Home

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Before the cotton crop can be harvested it must defoliate or be defoliated, meaning the leaves must come off. In conventional cotton farming this is done almost entirely with, you guessed it, more chemicals. In organic cotton farming, however, chemical defoliation is not an option, and farmers rely mostly on the seasonal freeze for leaf removal. If the season proves to be unreliable, organic farmers might turn water management as a defoliation stimulant.