
What happens to a mail-order mattress after you return it - japaget
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-happens-to-your-mail-order-mattress-after-you-return-it/
======
bsanr
I'd thought I'd get around the madness of mattress shopping by using just the
technique mentioned in the article here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22377160](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22377160)

At least, until I found something I liked. I purchased a Purple 3, thinking
that if I loved it, I'd just stick with it. I _did_ love it, but I couldn't
justify spending $2k on a twin(!). I returned it, and purchased from another
company for ~$700. I didn't like it as much as the Purple, but when I went to
begin the return, I was told that there _was_ no return process, and that I
could "move the mattress to a different room, or donate it." Two days later, I
received a refund for the full purchase amount. That ended my journey; no
awesome mattress at any price beats "decent and free."

As much as I appreciate getting a new mattress for zilch, the experience made
me extremely wary. Was my mattress so cheaply-made that the manufacturer could
afford to give them away? What was up? So I did some research. It turns out
that the mattress industry is a racket. The markups are ludicrous; almost
every mattress on the market costs, at most, a few hundred dollars to make.
And then it's also impossible to comparison shop because "models" differ based
on retailer by one or two small features; that means no price-matching, if you
can even tell what you're buying.

These are the kinds of things that make people suspicious of the way the
economy is set up. It should be easy to find out what you're purchasing, and
then to pay a fair price for it. Instead you have entire manufacturing-retail
chains built on obfuscation and able to eat untold amounts in lost product.

~~~
135792468
I didn’t read the article but I’ve worked for one of these companies that was
a startup and have a local mattress company as a client. So a little
perspective.

These companies are all marketing companies. There is no “science” they
literally get rolls of foam from foam makers, throw them on in layers and try
to find the right combo. I was there, I’ve done it myself.

The companies that end up winning have fantastic marketing, like purple, or
were early, like Casper.

Markup for foam mattresses in general is close to 2000%. Average foam cost for
a king mattress was <$50. The old school mattress companies are close to The
same which is why they have stores on every corner.

The industry is dirty as hell and as cut throat as they come.

As far as the returns, a reputable company will send the Salvation Army or
local equivalent to pick up the mattress and it becomes a tax write off for
the company. Otherwise like others have said they will tell you to keep it. No
sense bringing it back to the warehouse and in a lot of places it is illegal
to resell a mattress.

AMA if you want. Fascinating industry.

~~~
croissants
How should people buy mattresses, or mattress-like products, to avoid this
2000% markup?

~~~
Retric
IKEA for example sells a lot of mattresses under 150$. Under that you can just
by foam pads, but the biggest savings is simply avoiding mattress stores or
companies.

If you like pillow tops or those egg shell foam pads you can also just buy
them separately.

~~~
ramraj07
I've slept on a 150 dollar Ikea for years and I've slept on a leesa. Maybe
these conspiracy theories are true, but the Leesa is much more comfortable
than the cheap Ikea. Ikea also has more expensive substantial mattress
options, but it looks like they approach the same price range anyway. So
what's your real suggestion then? Sleep on the floor in a sleeping bag?

~~~
Retric
Personal preference does not make any option objectively better. So, my
suggestion is to explore your options. I enjoy a 4” foam pad on plywood over
several thousand dollar mattresses, but it’s not a question of cost just
comfort. Water beds are another cheap option that have largely fallen out of
favor.

PS: Body weight is a huge part of this. Gain or lose significant weight and
your preference is likely to change.

------
mech1234
Get a firm or very firm innerspring mattress from IKEA. You can do this for
less than $300 and it will fit in the back of a sedan in it's roll-up-package.

Sleep on it for a bit. If you don't like the feel, which you probably won't,
add a memory foam mattress topper for ~$50. Use a thicker or thinner topper to
suit your needs.

Congrats! Because your mattress is firm, its foam will not break down for a
long, long time. Sleep easy knowing you didn't waste stupid amounts of money
and that your mattress will last essentially forever.

~~~
pathartl
Not sure this is good advice. I like a firm mattress, but IKEA mattresses are
absolutely terrible. I also cannot sleep with a foam topper on any bed.
They're hot and screw up my back beyond belief.

~~~
rahimnathwani
Ikea sells different types of mattress (spring, foam, latex), each with
different thicknesses and price points.

I've bought ~10 Ikea mattresses, avoided the cheapest ones of each type, and
been pretty happy.

I can understand why a foam topper would feel hot. It's main purpose is to
provide a sleeping surface that's the same shape as your body, so of course
this means it maximises the amount of contact between you and itself. So no
space for air to circulate

But I don't understand how a foam topper can screw up your back, unless your
mattress is too soft to begin with. A bad/cheap foam topper will compress
pretty easily, and provide no additional support, but I don't see what harm it
would do.

~~~
unlinked_dll
>I've bought ~10 Ikea mattresses, avoided the cheapest ones of each type, and
been pretty happy.

You've bought _ten_ mattresses from them?! In how many years, and for how many
people?

I don't think my parents bought ten mattresses in the 20-odd years they had
their four kids living at home - and I still sleep on one of them.

Personally I don't trust anything from Ikea anymore. Their quality is such
garbage for all their products from furniture to glassware to lamps, I can't
give them a dime of my money knowing whatever I buy won't be around next year.
Multiply whatever you were going to spend by 1.5 and go to a decent home
store, or just go to Target instead.

~~~
rahimnathwani
"You've bought ten mattresses from them?! In how many years, and for how many
people?"

In ~20 years. Most are still in use. Some were for my parents, for guest rooms
and for flats that ended up being rental properties. I bought two mattresses
last year, as we moved to the US from China (which has different bed sizes).

"Their quality is such garbage for all their products from furniture to
glassware to lamps"

This is an overstatement. I and my family members have several Pax wardrobes
that are still going strong after 20 years. And several Malm dressers that
have lasted over 10 years. As long you assemble and install the things
correctly, and make sure they're straight, then there's no reason they
shouldn't last.

There _are_ Ikea dressers which are less sturdy than the Malm, because the
drawer runners are weak ball-bearing style ones, instead of the wheely ones on
the Malm. (Ball bearing runners can be great, but the ones I've seen on Ikea
dressers aren't designed to carry much load.)

~~~
philwelch
I’ve found a couple of patterns with IKEA. They’ll often have two virtually
identical products, with overall quality and material being the only
difference (particleboard vs. real wood, usually). Also, the main drawback is
often the loose tolerances that lead to a given piece not always fitting
together as well as it should.

------
rjkennedy98
At the returns department of the company I work for they use the returned
mattresses to clean the floor. The put the forklift prongs inside the mattress
and drive around to clean up the warehouse.

------
whalesalad
FWIW I had a Leesa and ended up returning it. That went fine and dandy,
everything worked as they promised with no frills.

What I actually want to share with you all here is to go to a mom-n-pop
mattress store in your local area. Find your local mattress NERD and buy a bed
from them. They're going to have all kinds of wild stuff you can try and will
do a great job of selling you the right bed for you (and your partner).

My wife and I ended up finding this guy -
[https://www.youtube.com/user/MattressToGo](https://www.youtube.com/user/MattressToGo)
\- and watching some of his (surprisingly popular) videos you will see he is
legitimately a mattress nerd.

Coincidentally we lived about an hour from his brick and mortar location so we
drove out to check out the showroom and ended up buying a mattress on the
spot. It took a few days to arrive but it's without a doubt my favorite
mattress.

I love the convenience afforded by these modern startup companies but there is
really something to be said for going to someone who has made one thing their
entire life's misson and letting them help you out.

~~~
joegahona
I have a Leesa and don't love it, but I've had it over a year now, so can't
return it. I didn't realize "mom-n-pop mattress stores" existed -- how would
one find one?

I ended up with an online-mattress purchase because of a poor experience with
both a Mattress Firm store (pushy salespeople) and most obnoxiously with a
specific manufacturer, Simmons. I stayed at an AirBnB in SF years ago and the
bed was noticeably the most comfortable bed I've ever slept on. I messaged the
host _years_ later and asked him what type of bed it was, and to my surprise
and delight, he messaged me back with text and images of the tags on the
mattress. When I tried contacting Simmons by phone, email, and even Facebook
Message, telling them I would BUY that mattress, no matter the cost, if they
could point me in the right direction, I got nowhere and was made to feel like
I was a bother. So while it's easy for me to believe that these online
mattress companies are marketing companies glueing foam together, maybe this
is what we needed to make an outdated industry improve.

~~~
troydavis
> how would one find one?

Mattress Underground's explanation of local manufacturers is a good start:
[https://www.themattressunderground.com/the-
industry/manufact...](https://www.themattressunderground.com/the-
industry/manufacturers/local.html). Their forum also has Q&A about specific
cities.

The rest of their tutorials are as good as any online:
[https://www.themattressunderground.com/the-
industry/industry...](https://www.themattressunderground.com/the-
industry/industry.html),
[https://www.themattressunderground.com/mattresses/mattress.h...](https://www.themattressunderground.com/mattresses/mattress.html)

------
dbg31415
Returns on bulky items are a mess.

I ordered a fridge and dishwasher from Costco. They were scuffed up during
delivery.

Costco asked me to bear with them... send pictures... write up a report...

Once Costco was able to stick the delivery company for the bill, they sent me
a new set. They didn't care about the original set.

At one point a guy showed up in a pickup. No uniform. Not in a delivery van,
or truck. Just a guy with a dolly and a beat-up F150. He said, "I'm here for
the old fridge."

When he saw they were new appliances, he was like, "Yeah, {the original
delivery company} told me to take them to the dump... let me sell them, I'll
come back with a U-Haul." And he kept texting and setting times and not
showing. I had a Fridge and Dishwasher in my living room for over a month.

I asked Costco what was up... I asked them to get it take care of ASAP... they
were like, "Uh... I mean, I guess we can... or you can just sell them..."

In the end I sold them to a neighbor, for half what I paid... he called the
brand repair place and ordered a new door. Which is all I was expecting anyone
to do in the first place.

------
throw7
I never liked the space a bed takes up so I decided to look into alternatives
some years ago when it started to offer less support.

I always had a futon so I immediately switched to that. I also bought a cheap
hammock and built some hammock stands to use it indoors.

I didn't have any problems adjusting to the futon; that's what I sleep on most
of the time today. I'm also pretty sure I'd have no problems with a japanese
style roll up beds either (it's basically like a futon anyway).

Hammocking, though, took a bit longer. I really wanted to make it work too. To
make a long story short, my initial hammock was too short and now I do have a
hammock I can sleep soundly in (which I do every now and then).

I was also initially interested on trying to train myself to sleep on a flat
floor... but, ummm, that did not go well and I've never returned to trying.
Maybe...

~~~
RuleOfBirds
I slept on a hammock for years indoors slung between two huge hooks I screwed
into my walls.

It took a couple weeks before I fully adjusted. One nice thing is that when I
went camping or on a three month bike trip, I had my every-night bed with me!
It felt so luxurious!

I loved it, and if I was single, I'd still be sleeping in a hammock every
night.

------
reaperducer
This isn't exclusive to mail order mattresses.

I went to a big-name department store just last week and bought a mattress.
For the first time, I chose a "memory foam" mattress because I liked how it
felt in the store. (Thought the traditional spring mattress felt more familiar
and "right," there's something about the foam that was nice.)

When the giant delivery truck arrived three days later, there was the usual
box spring, which I guess is what necessitated the truck, but then the
delivery guys brought in a small box the size of a chair and that's what
contained the shrunken mattress.

I asked what happens to the mattress if I decide that memory foam isn't for me
after all, and they said it depends on the brand. Some go to charity, some go
to an exporter for resale overseas, and some get shredded and made into new
mattresses.

~~~
giarc
Be careful with brick and mortar mattress stores (although you said department
store). Many will have "restocking" type fees for returning a mattress.

~~~
reaperducer
I asked about that. The only thing I would have to pay is the same delivery
fee again for the truck to pick up the old mattress set (reasonable, IMO), and
the price difference if I chose to replace it with a more expensive set.

------
Reedx
_“In California, a lot of charities can’t accept a used mattress,”_

So those in need of mattresses don't get them and more likely to go to
landfill... regardless of condition.

Are used mattresses really that risky? Are charities themselves not able to
make a reasonable judgement call on what they accept?

~~~
fwip
It's risky for the charity. For instance, if the mattress has bedbugs, it
stands a good chance of contaminating everything they've got in storage,
requiring them to purge their entire inventory, sanitize, and build up from
scratch again.

~~~
sauwan
Can't they set up an offsite hotbox to get rid of the bedbugs before it gets
onsite? Surely someone could set up a mobile truck that can come, park, and
heat up 15 mattresses for the few hours it takes to kill or drive off the
bedbugs, no?

~~~
megablast
> Can't they set up an offsite hotbox to get rid of the bedbugs before it gets
> onsite? I am not sure if you are serious or not, maybe you think charities
> have huge amounts of money to throw at all problems like Google does?

------
skookum
I bought a Purple mattress a few years ago. It was debilitatingly
uncomfortable. After three nights I gave up and called them for a return.
Their customer service spent quite a long time trying to convince me to keep
trying: their pitch/theory was that their mattress is so extremely comfortable
and all other mattresses are so extremely uncomfortable that the body gets
used to that discomfort and it will take a few weeks or more to switch over to
accepting the comfort of Purple. After repeatedly saying no thank you and
eventually having to explain to them quite bluntly that their theory was
complete horseshit, they processed the return... the "return" was a Salvation
Army truck, which, when it arrived, already had two brand new Casper
mattresses in it. I asked the guys in the truck if this was normal and they
said "yeah, we get at least 1-2 of these every day".

FWIW, I bought an IKEA foam mattress + memory foam topper for about 1/3rd of
what the Purple cost and it's been very comfortable for a few years now.

------
sergers
I bought a foam mattress off amazon canada.

Decided to return it.

Surprisingly amazon.ca doesnt offer large item pickup like USA, and expected
to return a king size expanded 10" thick foam mattress to the local post
office.

I called them asking wtf, how am I supposed to return it.

They gave a me refund, and told me donate destroy it myself or even just keep
it.

I decided to keep it

------
acd
Online shopping is not that sustainable. Current concerns are returns. First
you have the carbon emissions of the first package delivery then the return
package carbon emissions plus the waste. The waste comes that is more
expensive to handle return products than to simply throw them.

What I mean it’s more eco friendly to have big batch shipments to stores than
individual small packages sent by post.

A normal physical store is usually more environmentally friendly than online
shopping.

~~~
Animats
No, driving the SUV to the store usually uses more fuel than the entire supply
chain to get to the store.

~~~
ip26
... unless you choose two day shipping. Or so I've read.

(Two day often involves air freight instead of trucks)

------
ropiwqefjnpoa
I like companies like Sharetown, they help prevent things from just ending up
in a landfill and they make money doing it. There's a computer recycling
company near me that does pretty well reselling equipment sent to them for
recycling. They destroy drives when instructed to, but will wipe the rest and
resell intact running servers and workstations.

It's nice working with them because I know the equipment will most likely find
a home.

------
Yhippa
I bought one of these over a decade ago from Costco. It had a defect in it but
I never really pursued returning it. I had no clue how I'd get it out of my
house by myself. Use a chainsaw or machete to cut it into blocks and then toss
it out the window and then take it to the dump? It was really heavy. Much
heavier than normal mattresses. At least it seemed much more flexible to bend
around corners.

~~~
PopeDotNinja
I once had a loveseat that I couldn't get out of a studio apartment without
moving almost everything. Since I was a bit bored at the time, I slowly carved
up the entire thing with a Swiss Army knife w/ the saw & scissors extensions.
Was actually kind of fun.

~~~
zabzonk
In Edinburgh, Scotland, in the 1970s, a friend of mine inherited a flat and
contents but no money. It was an extremely cold winter and he ended up
chopping half the furniture to pieces (it was the typical hideous stuff you
got in flats in Edinburgh back then) and burning it in the fire-place to keep
warm.

~~~
dredmorbius
Probably mostly natural materials.

That'd be risky now.

~~~
dan-robertson
At least in Europe most furniture uses fire retardant materials. But the
chipboard that lots of things are made of will burn ok if you get it hot
enough

~~~
dredmorbius
I'm thinking plastics in everything: foams, fabrics, coverings, resins, glues.
Even fasteners and structure.

------
spartas
Abuse of these mattress return policies is also incentivized when new online
mattress companies are popping up every month.

[https://www.wsj.com/articles/unintended-perk-of-the-
online-m...](https://www.wsj.com/articles/unintended-perk-of-the-online-
mattress-boom-never-ending-free-trials-11575474415)

------
jacob019
Forgive me if this is off-topic. I am currently in the market for a queen size
mattress in a box. The last one that I bought on Amazon was perfect, it cost
about $300.
[https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07F8NNL8X](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07F8NNL8X)
It is no longer available. Now it seems that you can get a decent one for
under $250. Here are some that I found:

Ashley:
[https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0777K9RGX](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0777K9RGX)

Vibe:
[https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074NDQ143](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074NDQ143)

PrimaSleep:
[https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075T6BNC2](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075T6BNC2)

Anyone here have any suggestions?

~~~
wycy
I have the AmazonBasics mattress:
[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07C49ZPQG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b...](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07C49ZPQG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1)

It's my guest room mattress but I do sleep in the guest room occasionally, and
when I do I sleep better than my normal mattress. That said, the edge support
isn't great. Being close to the edge makes it feel almost like you're at a
slight slope. Still, no regrets for $250.

Edit: I'm 6ft / 165 lb. It's possible that it would be less supportive for
heavier weights.

~~~
giarc
I agree with the edge support and foam mattresses. A friend of mine asked me
about whether he should recommend a foam mattress for his grandparents. I
specifically said no because of the edge support. I fear someone with mobility
issues might not be able to support themselves if they were to sit on the
corner.

~~~
wycy
FWIW, my main mattress is also foam (Leesa) and seems to have good edge
support. But the Leesa was a lot more expensive than the Amazon mattress, and
I wanted to spend less since it was a guest room.

------
circa
I know this is about mail-order mattress companies. I have always thought that
one of these Mattress store chains are going to be busted for being involved
in a drug ring or something like that. There are way more locations than there
needs to be. Especially with all of these online mattress brands popping up.
There always seems to be 1 guy working and no one in the stores, ever. At any
of these locations. I don't understand how a business model like that can
last. But they're still kickin'

~~~
freedomben
At least around the salt lake Utah area those stores go out of business all
the time.

~~~
derefr
Why are they started in the first place? Where do people get the capital to
start a type of business that's observably likely to fail?

------
deftnerd
It feels like there might be other possibly uses of old or unwanted foam
mattresses. Perhaps they can be cut down to standard sizes for home insulation
batting? As insulation between raised garden bed containers and the ground?
Insulation between the ground and a fish tank in an aquaponics setup?

While there might be better solutions for all of those things, if these
materials are going to end up in the landfill and can be provided for almost
no cost, it seems like a waste to not utilize the resource.

~~~
anonAndOn
Although it's a bit of work to cut the foam layers into hundreds of little
blocks, you can turn an unwanted foam mattress into a decent bean bag.

~~~
ItsDeathball
I wonder if you could get the same result by throwing it in a woodchipper and
bagging the mattress-mulch.

------
andyjohnson0
The Guardian recently had a long-ish article [1] on the state of mattress
recycling and the economics of buying online. Its a fairly depressing read:
these things are super-hard to recycle effectively and just get dumped like
toxic waste:

 _" The mattresses these criminals can’t resell, they fly-tip – Circom has had
mattresses dumped outside its warehouse – or dump in landfill. In some cases,
fraudsters have been known to rent a shed from an unsuspecting landlord, fill
it to the brim with mattresses – and scarper. “There are loads of fake
companies out there filling up sheds,” agrees Ray Bagnall, of Matt UK, another
mattress recycler. “Dumping them on farms in Sussex or Essex.” He was recently
called to clear out a shed full of thousands of mattresses in Snowdonia."_

It would be nice to think that a vendor making low environmental impact
mattresses would effectively disrupt the market, but it just doesn't seem
likely.

[1]
[https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/12/mattress...](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/12/mattress-
landfill-crisis-recycling-nightmare)

------
beagle3
In some countries, you get the mattress inside an airtight/watertight
packaging, and you only get a refund if you return it (yourself or for some
shipping cost) while still in that packaging.

This means you can only get a feel for the softness/hardness but not
breathability (due to the packaging). On the other hand, it means prices are
sane.

Personally, I prefer this system to the US one, where the ethical purchasers
subsidize the unethical purchasers and unethical, greedy sellers. YMMV.

------
jessetutt
Being thoughtful about the environment is important. It’s important to mention
that some bed in a box realtors aren’t doing the best they can. Gotta Sleep
uses bio foam which is made with soy based oils and donates all returned
mattresses. [https://gottasleep.com/products/omg-
mattress](https://gottasleep.com/products/omg-mattress)

------
clSTophEjUdRanu
I love this. I've always thought their guarantee was meaningless because
almost nobody is going to actually mail back a mattress.

~~~
ska
Some of the guarantees, at least when I looked a few years ago, include pickup
for return. Presumably (cf article) not to original location; but still, hard
to image something more zero risk than this.

With something like a 120 day no-questions asked, no risk return I think they
are more relying on you getting used to it in that amount of time. And huge
markup means they can eat quite a few too, I suppose.

------
paxys
"Cheap" spring mattress + foam pad + down/pillow-top layer is the best
mattress purchase decision you can make. My queen set is under $300 and more
comfortable than ~20 other fancy mattresses I tried, some as high as $2500.
And it's "upgradable" and adjustable without needed to toss the whole thing.

------
pengaru
Presumably the return policies will change once there are no more brick and
mortar local mattress stores to buy from.

At that point, you'll _only_ be able to buy online, and they won't need to
offer returns. You have no choice but to have _something_ delivered, or go
without a mattress (my personal preference).

~~~
sunsetMurk
what's your sleeping situation like w/o a mattress?

(I'm waiting for someone to invent & sell some sort of sleeping pod that
provides a perfect environment, and keeps me in ideal position for the maximum
sleep benefit)

~~~
pengaru
I mostly just sleep on an area rug with a head pillow and blankets, sleeping
on anything significantly more compliant just bothers my neck and back.

You can achieve very similar results with a more elaborate arrangement by
going traditional Japanese style, check out tatami mats if curious.

------
WorldPeas
Now I can finally feel like a smug eco-warrior by sleeping on the same queen
mattress I used as a teenager.

In all seriousness though, these companies should make it easier to put their
mattresses back in their box, especially if it means they could avoid
something like this. I seem to recall my old air mattress could easily be
deflated by running the pump in reverse, fitting in a tiny bag. Would it be
too hard to have a re-compression pump that could be shipped back for a rebate
with shipping included if you decide to keep the mattress? Re-compressing the
mattresses would probably also make it easier to cram a bunch of them into
some sort of extreme-temperature vault so any bedbugs or other pests could be
exterminated before re-use.

~~~
gbronner
It appears to take a fairly substantial press/vacuum sealer to squash these
down, get them into their plastic bag so they don't explode, and roll them
into a tight cylinder.

[https://sleepdelivered.com/bed-in-a-box-mattresses-
packing/](https://sleepdelivered.com/bed-in-a-box-mattresses-packing/)

This machine looks pretty elaborate -- not sure that you are going to get a
consumer version.

------
ljm
I bought a firm mattress from IKEA and it’s been great. These companies doing
trials and returns sound like a scam to rope in people who like ‘free’ stuff.

The mattress market is a pure scam.

------
fmladineo
If you ever need one of these mattresses, lemme know. I contract to pick them
up.

------
fmladineo
If you ever want one of these open box returns, lemme know. I can hook you up.

------
nfoz
A mail-order mattress company advertises via fivethirtyeight so I wonder if
this out-of-place piece is partly fuelled by that advertising effort.

------
madengr
Mattress shopping is almost as bad as car shopping. I'll buy a used car to get
around the sleazy car sales people, but the wife absolutely won't go for a
used matresss.

I'm sure the mattress markup is astronomical, and I'm sure most brands come
from the same factories.

~~~
tenpies
I'm also somewhat suspicious that foam mattresses are quite bad for your
health, not necessarily from a sleep mechanics perspective, but from an air
quality one. I mean you are literally sleeping on a piece of plastic that is
optimized for surface area. You then squish it constantly while using it and
inhale those aerosolized plastic particles for about 8 hours per day.

~~~
wahern
There are latex foam mattresses. I've purchased two from Sleep on Latex
(sleeponlatex.com, or Pure Green on Amazon).

That said, whether latex, polyurethane, or whatever, with foam mattresses
you're supposed to use a mattress protector to prevent sweat and accidents
from soiling the foam. Alternatively or in addition to that, Sleep on Latex
uses a wool topper, as I'm sure many other brands do. And then on top of that
most people use sheets. I would think all of that covering would trap any
particles so they can conveniently be washed out to sea with all the other
microplastics from the laundry.

------
0xff00ffee
I gotta admit, there's one tiny bit of this that I think is kinda cool: the
secondary "Sharetown" ecosystem does sound like an "afterburner" of sorts for
unused product, and I much rather see products be up-or-re-cycled than tossed
in landfill. I think there is a much larger market for this, especially as TFA
says about the huge increase in returns.

------
droithomme
It's amazing anyone buys used mattresses. The likelihood of getting bedbugs
and pounds of a stranger's skin flakes is very high. Gross!

~~~
jldugger
A hotel is basically a gigantic used mattress store with massive churn.

~~~
Fnoord
Hehe, true, but supposedly _the room_ is somewhat sanitized.

There's an old Dutch saying "in de aap gelogeerd zijn". It means you got got
scammed / got tricked / are in trouble. Literally, it means you "stayed at the
ape".

As the story goes, the original meaning is that there was a hotel in Amsterdam
(at Zeedijk 1) which was called "'t Aepjen" (old Dutch for "the ape"), where
you stayed. Because Dutch East India Company (VOC) seamen couldn't pay their
bills they paid with an ape. So if someone who was scratching themselves, the
question was raised: "did you stay in 't Aepjen" (or in Dutch "ben je in de
aap gelogeerd?").

Another version is that it was a pub (the oldest one in Amsterdam) where
drunks met, and recruiters took advantage of this to get people to sign
contracts (to subscribe for VOC).

[1] [https://historiek.net/in-de-aap-gelogeerd-
zijn/60549/](https://historiek.net/in-de-aap-gelogeerd-zijn/60549/)

