What is Fast Fashion?
Yes, yes, yet another thing to be concerned about the environment with. And yet, it is still an important issue in the world of fabrics, including the fabrics we use to make our mattresses!
So, what exactly is fast fashion?
In ye olden times, clothes were released all at once, a big bundle for the season. This is where spring lines and winter drops come from. Large fashion shows, that would mark the trends for the next few months, with most clothing lines only dropping about 3-4 collections a year.
However, like all things during the industrial revolution, things sped up, and so did our tastes.
Suddenly, a new drop couldn't satisfy us for the three months it took for us to wait for the next one.
Suddenly, trends were being born and dying within a month, causing us to toss out our old, 'unfashionable' clothes that were only a few weeks old.
So, what's so harmful about fast fashion?
The materials used to make these. Cotton is very labor and water-intensive crop, with one t-shirt requiring about 900 days of fresh drinking water! Even with water recycling programs, this is an awful lot of water, especially when the earth's water supply is running low!
What can you do?
Take better care of your clothes! Holding onto a garment for 9 months reduces its environmental impact by 10%! Not a lot, but it's far better than nothing.
Even tossing our clothes can have an impact. 17 million tons of textile waste ended up in landfills in 2018! Those which did not end up being tossed were burnt, releasing harmful gasses and chemicals from the synthetic materials into the air!
Making clothes has a horrible impact as well. We all love the bright colors of fashion today, but do you know how they get those colors? By harmful chemicals and synthetic materials. The excess and unneeded materials get released into local rivers, poisoning the water and harming those who rely on those rivers.
Just switching from cotton isn't the best, either. In some companies urge to move away from depending on cotton, has also been fuelling the growth of wood-based cellulosic fibers. The typical process for dissolving pulp for viscose/rayon wastes about 70% of the tree. This contributes heavily to deforestation, which we all know is terrible.
This is why we make our all-natural latex mattresses with a mix of cotton and wool! Our wool is sustainably gathered from sheep. Sheep naturally grow wool at a faster rate than they can healthily maintain, especially during the summer months!
A single sheep can produce nearly 30 pounds of wool in a single shear! A single pound of cotton takes nearly 2000 gallons of water.
By mixing and responsibly sourcing our wool and cotton, we are doing our part to make for a better future, while still offering sustainable comfort!
The wool comes with a myriad of benefits as well! Being hypoallergenic, mold and mildew resistant, wicking and temperature regulating, it’s hard not to see the benefits of such a wonderful fiber. Additionally, wool is completely recyclable, whereas synthetics are doomed to fill a landfill, as synthetics quickly lose resiliency with age, while wool keeps its springy support for ages!
Unlike synthetics, wool is naturally fire-resistant, burning with a self-extinguishing flame. Synthetic materials melt, which is more likely to form severe burns.
All in all, our wool-cotton blend is the best for the environment and you! Offering comfort, safety, and eco-friendliness, you'll be hard-pressed to find a better material for your latex mattress!