Wow!  Labor Day Weekend already!  Where did the summer go? 

Well, as promised, here is my long delayed posting on Soy Foam used in mattresses.

At this past market in Las Vegas, it seemed that nearly every mattress company had some form of Soy "story".  Simmons, for example, had the Danny Seo bed which uses foam that is 15% soy content from Dow Chemical.  The phylosophy behind this mattress is that if we can just change people's behavior by 5% when it comes to the environment, multiplied by the total population, then this is a tremendous change!

This is very true.  A 5% change toward more environmental practices by each person will make a huge difference in saving the planet.  The key with this posting is not to dispute this claim at all, but to make you aware that Soy foam is not a total end-all in being chemical free.  It is, in fact, a step in making your mattress more environmentally friendly.

After a comprehensive look at many of the mattresses from multiple manufacturers at the World Market Center last month, I can tell you for a fact that the average soy content of the foam used is about 14%.  This means, then, on average the mattress is still 86% petro-chemically based polyurethane foam.  Remember, we're going for that 5% change, so that 14% is still ahead of the curve.

Now then, it seemed that most of the beds I saw and in speaking with the sales staff of each company there was about a 10% to 13% soy content.  Simmons, as I mentioned, is at 15%.  Natura, which is emerging as sort of the gold standard for trying to keep things as natural as possible, tops out at 20% in their soy based foam mattresses.  Natura is also supplied by the leader in soy foam research, Cargill.

Soy based foam is attractive from one standpoint in that the mattresses cost far less than organic or even natural latex mattresses.  Where you almost can't touch a fully organic mattress now for under $2,000, a soy based foam mattress starts around $1,000 in queen size.  But what consumers should really watch out for are the sales people who try to pass off a mattress containing soy based foam as being anywhere above that 20% soy content level.  This practice, which some companies have dubbed "Green Washing" is becoming frighteningly common in the marketplace so it makes sense in this case to do your homework.

Why does soy based foam top out at 20% soy content?  Well, there are a variety of reasons.  First, beyond that level the foam picks up a rather unpleasant odor - and nobody wants a smelly bed, even if it is environmentally friendly.  Second, evidence indicates that increasing the soy foam level beyond 20% can seriously lower the life expectancy of the mattress.  Companies like Cargill and Dow are still working on it and will likely solve both of these key problems in the future, but for now that 20% marker is about as much soy as you are going to get.

Typically, in addition to costing less, soy based foam mattresses are going to have a lower warranty then their latex counterparts.  Where you find 20 year warranties on latex beds, you may only see 15 or 10 year warranties from the soy based foam models.  Part of this is what is typical of regular polyurethane foams in the first place - they just don't last as long as latex does.  The rest is that unknown factor of how this foam will really hold up under actual use.

Another product that is also out there is soy based memory foam.  This one, in my opinion, is something to stay away from.  Memory foam as a material requires very precise mixing and environmental conditions during the manufacturing process in order for it to perform the way it should and I have yet to be convinced that introducing even a small percentage of soy to this process is going to result in the same product that is going to have the same life span.  In this case, that 5% change may not provide you with what you expect in terms of performance and longevity, at least for now. 

So there you have it.  Don't let anyone tell you that soy based foam is 100% natural, but do know that you are making a difference if that is the bed of your choice. 

Now go out there and enjoy this last little bit of summer before it slips away!