Daily News
From Home Furnishing Business
Soft-Tex Announces Eco-Conscious Initiatives
October 30,
2018 by Laurie Northington in Business Strategy, Industry
Sleep product manufacturer Soft-Tex International has announced several sustainability initiatives showcasing the company's eco-conscious component of its mission to help people sleep and live better.
In an effort to utilize eco-friendly materials in its products and packaging wherever possible, Soft-Tex purchases retail packaging from suppliers that comply with requirements of the Forestry Stewardship Council and the EU's Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive.
For its shipping cartons, the company purchases Pratt 100% Recycled corrugated boxes which based on purchases thus far in 2018 have helped save over 2,800 trees, 661,200 kWH of power, 545 cubic yards of landfill space, 1,157,100 gallons of water, and 165 tons of CO2 compared to traditional cardboard boxes.
With respect to Soft-Tex's product assortment, the company offers a line of pillows and mattress pads featuring organic cotton covers and an eco-efficient fiber blend of recycled fiber and a corn-based fiber under the MaryJane's Home brand. The company also leverages recycled or eco-friendly fibers in many of its other products and are partners with well-known brands like Repreve and Tencel.
Soft-Tex's EcoShape manufacturing process for memory foam pillows fills molds with foam creating the pillow's precise shape resulting in far less waste compared to alternative manufacturing processes which produce significant scrap when cutting a pillow from a slabstock foam bun.
Soft-Tex also recycles the shredded memory foam pieces from other cut foam manufacturing processes and uses them to create innovative shredded memory foam products like mattress toppers, pillows, and more.
To round out the company’s more eco-conscious manufacturing, its Waterford, N.Y. factory has implemented numerous energy saving measures including the use of auto off technologies on manufacturing equipment as well as more energy-efficient lighting solutions that leverage both motion and solar sensors to provide light only when and where it is needed.
Soft-Tex will be rolling out a new eco-friendly brand, Ecopedic in 2019 to include latex and organic cotton luxury products packaged in eco-friendly materials.
"At Soft-Tex, environmental stewardship is a core tenet of who we are as a company and of growing importance to the end consumer. To that end, we are committed to helping provide high quality luxury sleep solutions with the world in mind and investing in sustainability efforts in all that we do from product development, manufacturing, packaging, shipping, and more," said Chris Marsh, chief marketing officer.