The Subtle Differences Between Organic Latex & Natural Latex

As a conscientious consumer, it can be tricky to navigate all the different products and labels out there. Product packaging might be purposely misleading marketing can be intentionally confusing so that people believe they are making a healthy or environmentally friendly choice when in fact it’s not quite that clear cut.

Food and beverage, cleaning and beauty products, even clothing can all fall prey to this type of manipulative messaging. Even mattresses are no exception! So for people who want to invest in a mattress that is truly the least harmful to the environment and to health, there is some confusing information to sort through.

When shopping for a mattress, a consumer might come across the labels: Organic Latex and Natural Latex. They both sound great! You might even be wondering if there’s a meaningful difference between the two.

There is! We’ll break it down for you so that you have the information you need when shopping for the best mattress for you.

Natural Latex

Natural latex mattresses can be a really great option to sleep on, so what classifies latex as organic then?

Here’s some background: Natural latex is tapped from a rubber tree. These resource-rich trees originally hailed from Brazil but have now been planted all over the world and are mainly harvested now in South East Asia and Africa.

It’s really interesting to see a rubber tree farm, and the way these incredible trees are harvested. Workers remove a thin spiral strip of bark and collect the latex as it seeps out. The versatile material is processed to manufacture a huge range of products, from rubber tires to mattresses.

Natural latex mattresses utilize the sap from the rubber tree, making it true that it uses a naturally occurring material. Consumers might assume then that these mattresses are organic, and that’s where some confusion can occur. Some mattresses labeled “natural latex” are not necessarily purely organic. They may also be blended with synthetic latex for increased material durability, firmness and flexibility.

Organic latex

If a mattress is labelled organic latex, it also means that the final cost of that mattress will reflect the extra cost of organic certification of the latex used in the manufacturing process. This however, does not necessarily make the organic mattress a better performing one, since as we mentioned above, a blend of natural and synthetic latex can be part of a mattress design & specifications.