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Wallowa County's Old Guard
Suggested Citation. Kerr, Andy. 27 September 1995. Remarks before Lighthawk, meeting in Joseph Oregon.
I want to thank Lighthawk, the nation's environmental air force for inviting me to share the evening. Lighthawk plays a unique role in documenting environmental destruction and values, and in letting people see for themselves what is going on. Lighthawk has played a pivotal role in saving the westside forests and I expect it will do the same for eastside forests and grasslands.
Welcome to Wallowa County. Home of about 7,000 humans and 42,000 bovines.
"Wallowa" is an Anglicization of a Nez Perce word for a fish trap set up on the river just below the lake to catch sockeye salmon.
The sockeye salmon are long gone from Wallowa Lake. The Coho Salmon went extinct in the Snake River Basin in the 1980s. The Chinook Salmon, both the spring-summer and fall runs, are on the endangered species list. The last of the sea-going fish, the Steelhead will soon be on the list as well.
Salmon are a barometer of ecosystem health and this barometer has been going down for more than a century. The river was much cleaner then and is much straighter now.
My wife and I have lived in Wallowa County for a little over a year and one-half. I have been coming to Wallowa County since my first post-high school road trip where I bought my first beer at the Wallowa Lake store.
I want to share with you some of my personal impressions and observations about Wallowa County, the rural West, and the changing economy.
Wallowa County is a good as an example of any of the changing rural West. It's population peaked in 1920 at 9778. It was perhaps higher than this before the First World War which saw an large emigration to cities and to the front that never returned. The population has been 7,000 ± 800 since 1930. The trend presently seems slightly upward, but nothing compared to the State of Oregon's population growth.
In terms of overall number, the local population is relatively stable. This population base is being maintained even though it appears that the vast majority of children are leaving the county after the graduate from high school. So who is moving in? Data is sparse, but it appears to be wealthy urban refugees.
The economy is also in transition. Unemployment ranks among the highest in the state. Historically, timber, grazing and a little cultivated agriculture were the mainstays. These are generally on the decline. Increasing are tourism and recreation, and the craft of making art, especially bronze pieces. A major increasing source of income in the county is transfer payments, people spending their money here that they either made elsewhere or from government entitlements.
Economically, we are seeing a retreat to Interstate 84. In Joseph, we are 75 miles from the Interstate (and the first stoplight).
The branch rail line from La Grande is proposed for abandonment from Joseph to Elgin (outside the county). US National Bank has pulled out, selling their operations to the Bank of Wallowa County. General Telephone and Electronics is seeking to sell its operations in Wallowa County. Both seek to concentrate their business along the interstates.
Economically, the county has historically had a severe dependence on the federal government. The feds are one of the largest employer in the county About 70% of the county is federally owned.
An interesting political dynamic is in transition. Traditionally, the federal government theoretically held much power. But in fact, it has historically served as handmaidens to local political interests of timber, ranching and farming. This is changing.
The rail line is going out because of a drop off in shipments. The fatal blow as the closure of the Boise-Cascade Corporation sawmill in Joseph. That mill closed literally the week we were completing our move here. Of course, I was blamed personally and sometimes exclusively. (If I had just 10% of the power my detractors ascribe to me, I'd be a happy person.)
I think the mill closure had more to do with strategic decisions made by the absentee mangers in Boise decades ago to run the Joseph operation until it wore out or ran out of logs, and to modernize its Elgin operation. They didn't put a dime into the Joseph mill except for grease for many years and it couldn't handle a log less than 18 inches in diameter. The mill closed with a deck full of logs, that Boise-Cascade hauled off to its other mills.
That left Wallowa County with two mills: The R-Y operation in Joseph by the airport and the Rogge Mill in Wallowa. Later last year, the R-Y operation closed without warning and also with a full log deck. The logs were sold to Boise-Cascade. It was more profitable, apparently for R-Y to sell its logs than to make product from those logs to sell.
This second mill closing was just too much for the community power structure. They were desperate to keep the mill in operation, including looking for state and federal funds so the county could buy the mill. Quite ironic for a community that views itself as independent and free-market, don't you think?
A couple of people got together and decided buy the mill. One used to manage it awhile back and the other is an industrialist who owns a house on Wallowa Lake. They have been looking for logs, the mills had been pretty aggressive buying private timber, so those stocks are near depletion.
The new Joseph Timber Company then announced they had secured an initial source of logs. They are buying 2 million feet of logs already in the yard at the Rogge Mill in Wallowa and are paying the liens on the logs before they are milled. The Rogge operation has closed and will likely be sold for parts.
As the actual economic importance of timber and grazing decline, among the old guard, their social importance takes on mythic proportions.
Fearing a loss of power and lifestyle, this old guard clings desperately to the past. To compensate for declining economic importance, one sees increasing rhetoric about the social importance of livestock grazing and logging. Not content to simply proclaim the joys of grazing and logging, this old guard declaims any who would deviate from the party line.
They hold power today, not because they are the strongest, but because of their historical dominance and their contemporary arrogance. If any dare venture a view on the environment, contrary to their beliefs, the intimidation machine takes over. In Wallowa County, it is easier to discuss your sex life and religion than your environmental views. If you have kids in school, or if you are a storekeeper you are vulnerable to various forms of intimidation. Unless you have an independent livelihood, you cannot speak without fear of intimidation or retribution. To speak out means a possible boycott of your business, harassment of your kids or worse. As a result, Wallowa County has few "out" environmentalists.
Being confined to one landscape can have has an effect on social attitudes. We can see this by the development of a social idiom. Take the phrase "The County." Here in Wallowa County, it is common to refer to "the county."
If you engage in a conversation with a long-time resident, he or she will likely say "you're not from here." They won't likely say "you're from Portland," but rather "your not from the county."
If you are in LaGrande—seat of Union County to the southwest—you might well hear one tell you "I am going up to the county," not "I am going to Wallowa County."
Most Oregonians don't identify much with counties. Most Westerners live in urban and suburban settings where their interaction with their county is limited to matters pertaining to licenses for dogs, marriages and concealed handguns.
But in Wallowa County, the identification, not just with local government, but with the geography of the county is much stronger. There are two state highways leading into (or out of) the county. From La Grande you drop down a steep grade and almost come to the Minam River before you enter the county. From Lewiston, you climb out of the Grande Ronde Canyon and cross a state line to get to the county. Once here, you are hemmed in by the Wallowa Mountains to the South and the Snake River to the East. Only in summer, after the snows have melted, can you leave the county toward the South on a somewhat paved Forest Service road.
The result of this influence of geography, especially if one doesn't get out much, can be a severe provinciality and the development of an "us v. them" attitude. This is exacerbated by the "urban v. rural" split in Oregon and every other state, for that matter.
Long-time residents see their kids going off to cities and never returning except to visit. They see their traditional economies in decline and a new economies emerging and leaving them behind. We all hate change. The conflicts arise because people perceive change differently. If to you the status quo is a high level of logging and grazing, then decreases in that are unacceptable. If to you the status quo is a any level of salmon and grizzly bears, then decreases are unacceptable.
It also depends on whether your brain is wired to value more the long-term or the short-term. Take the statement "we only have 10 years of logs left." If your reaction is, "well, the forest has been overcut, the mills are going to close anyway, we have to save what's left," you're likely an environmentalist.
But an equally sincere reaction is "in 10 years, I'll be retired, or I'll have paid off my house, and I've never had the same job 10 years."
And if you are the Chief Executive Officer of a corporation your reaction will undoubtedly be: "10 years is 40-quarterly reporting periods for which I am under a fiduciary responsibility to the stockholders to maximize profits every 90 days; hell I won't be in this job 10 quarters, let alone 10 years."
Wallowa County: Things are different here. Take the common bumper sticker: "Kill the Pipeline." I'm usually against all pipelines, but I was seeing this bumper sticker on big pick-ups, usually with bumper stickers I didn't approve of. The "pipeline" in this case was to make water use for irrigation more efficient than open ditches. The local outcry over piping the water was immense. It centered on "custom and culture" arguments such as "we've always done it that way" and "our kids have always played in the ditches. A Nez Perce wryly noted that we European Americans don't have a treaty which has the retained the right to forever use the usual and accustomed swimming holes, like Native Americans have for fish.
There are three major psychological factors that I have found to be important in understanding how this old guard behaves:
• small-world view;
• intolerance; and
• paranoia.
Let me give you an example. I—and a good deal of scientific evidence supports my view—don't believe that livestock grazing and logging is good for fish and wildlife. This old guard's small-world view is internally reinforcing because they only talk to themselves. They don't get out much. "Why everybody knows that grazing and logging is good for fish and wildlife, just as sure as everybody knows the sun rises over the Seven Devils each morning!"
They are also intolerant. This old guard will not grant me, or anyone else who doesn't think like them, the simple sincerity of one's position. They believe that acknowledgment of a contrary viewpoint is acceptance of such and this weakens their own position.
Combining narrow-mindedness and intolerance, the old guard sincerely believes "that any damn fool knows livestock grazing and logging are good for fish and wildlife, and therefore anyone who espouses such a view much have a hidden agenda."
Here, the third factor, paranoia sets in. Since environmentalists must have a hidden agenda, what is it? Well, it's easy: environmentalists are out to get them personally.
If the other side will not even grant you the sincerity and good faith of your position, it makes it very difficult to have a rational dialogue on the issues.
Increasingly, the division and hatred that seems to be upwelling in this nation is manifest with the assumption of bad faith. The increasingly mean-spirited conservative right increasingly seems to operate from an assumption of bad faith. Anyone who disagrees with them must therefore have the worst possible motives for having such beliefs. This does not bode well for the Union.
Lighthawk first became interested in holding their annual fly-in in Wallowa County after Ric Bailey of the Hells Canyon Preservation Council and myself were hung in effigy in September 1994 during a so-called "wise use" conference.
Ric and I were disappointed that we weren't invited to the event. Had we known, we would have changed our schedules to be there. As it was, we were both out-of-town. (I've had better effigy. In this case, I found the craftsmanship was sloppy and uncreative.)
The effigy thing and the so-called wise use conference was driven by a gentlemen then running for County Commissioner as a Democrat. The Republican incumbent, no bit player in the unwise use movement himself, had the edge and the challenger needed public attention.
The challenger's campaign seemed to center on running Bailey and Kerr out of town. I say this not out of arrogance or ego, but from evidence. Other than some lawn signs—with the very east-coast trait of having the candidates picture on them—the remainder of his campaign seemed to be a mailing of a brochure to each voter. The brochure took no potentially controversial positions, and in fact said that one should write the candidate if one wanted to know his position on anything. It also included testimonials from his children on what a great guy he was.
The local newspaper was more than willing to give him his ink. Nonetheless, he lost be a 2-1 margin, which I take to be closer to expressing support for tolerance, than for the environment.
More have sought to make my wife and I welcome in Wallowa County than have not. Many have had to be discreet in showing such civility, 'lest they suffer the wrath of this old guard.
Of course, a number have gone out of their way to make us unwelcome. It is a small minority though. My problem is that most of my publicists don't work for me. Instead they work for the timber, cattle, mining, agriculture and such industries who have chosen to demonize myself and ONRC for their own purposes. As a result, the reputation that I enjoy is often inaccurate. (One of the reasons I keep my hair short, is so that when people recognize me, they will see that I don't have horns.)
When an old guard begins to lose power, the tendency is to do what they have been doing, only more so. It used to be that federal agents in Wallowa County were always accommodating handmaidens of industrial interests. If any federal official did have the audacity to act up and try to obey the law or otherwise conduct land and resource management contrary to local custom and culture, a phone call to the local Congressman would put an end to it. But this is changing. Federal officials are increasingly pressured from other sides and now, and can't always accommodate the old guard.
The old guard responds by getting louder and more threatening. This works in the short-term, but as a long-term strategy it is destined for failure.
Perhaps you have seen the bumper sticker that says "Bag Bailey, Babbitt and Kerr." I was tempted to display it on my car, after surgically altering it to more accurately reflect the order in which they should be concerned. But I didn't want to cut up my only copy; as I didn't think they would give me another.
Some have asked me why don't I sit down and talk with these extremists. It is easier said then done. Besides their small-world view, intolerance and paranoia, some of this old guard also suffers from delusion. They are whacko. They sincerely believe that the United Nations is quartering troops in nearby Wilderness Areas; troops there with the acquiesce of the federal government; troops who will soon swoop down to take away our guns. They say they have seen black helicopters flying over the county; helicopters who are carrying federal agents on their way to heinous missions. Our respective realties are so disparate, that dialogue is impossible.
One of my professional reasons for moving to Wallowa County was place myself in a hostile habitat. Living in Portland, one tends to be surrounded with people who generally think like I do. While this is reinforcing and gratifying to the ego, it can be deceiving. I had prided myself on being able to think like my adversary. Take a timber beast: emphasizes the short-term; values money over nature, etc. But I am going to admit an inadequacy here. I'm not paranoid and delusional enough to think like some of my opponents from the genera that comprises the unwise use/identity Christian/KKK/Aryan Nation/Neo-Nazi/Militia sects.
While old guard views themselves a free-enterprise Americans, they in fact simply have their hands deeply in the pockets of Uncle Sam (actually the taxpayers). Their traditional activities have been for the most part subsidized by the federal government: grazing, timbering, and wheat farming.
Wallowa County is a hot-bed of the county supremacy movement. It's just a 90s style Sagebrush Rebellion which occurred during the Reagan Administration. Such uprising have been tried before under the Cleveland, Hoover and Eisenhower administrations. The big difference this time is that the rap isn't "state rights" but "county rights." The reason is that in this terribly urbanized West, where 80% of the people living west of the Continental Divide live within 50 miles of Interstate 5, that if the federal lands were turned over to the states, the local special interests won't necessarily be better off.
What is driving this issue is a feeling among some in the rural West, that understandings—laws, regulations, policies, grants, etc.—made during the past near two centuries between select beneficiaries of federal largesse and the federal government—are now unraveling. They are. They weren't understanding between equal powers. They were essentially grants-in-aid from Congress, on behalf of the entire people of the United States to certain Westerners. What we the people give, we the people can take away.
To forestall this, an amusing legal theories which requires constructions of the law never before seen in this nation, and few lawyers would risked by sanctioned by a court to frivolously bring. If we were to apply such a narrow reading of the Constitution as my friends here desire, USDA farm support programs are similarly unconstitutional as public lands.
Rather than inventing cock-eyed constitutional theories in a vain attempt to maintain the old relationship, we Wallowans need to look instead at removing ourselves from the public teat, be it timber, mining, grazing, irrigation, crop, power or other kinds of subsidies. The raw political numbers, in terms of the small number of beneficiaries relative to the large number of taxpayers, is writing enough on the wall. We ought to negotiate a severance package. Politically, such a package could be achieved for a graceful end to federal resource subsidies. But if these welfare kings continue to hold out, political and fiscal reality will hit and the subsidies will end, relatively abruptly and with little compassion.
For the westside forests, where the northern spotted owl hangs out, the Clinton Administration is providing $1.2 billion dollars of economic transition assistance. That's $120,000/dislocated worker who lost their job due to changing federal policies regarding the spotted owl. Our fellow residents who lose their job due to changing federal policies in regard to salmon, grazing, forest management or whatever, deserve no less. Unfortunately, most of this westside money is being sucked up by the bloated bureaucracy, not getting to the ground or to the worker.
ONRC proposes that this transition money be split three ways:
$40,000 for each dislocated timber worker directly to said worker to use as he or she sees fit. They can pay off their house, coast into retirement, go back to school, start a business, move or whatever best fits their individual needs, including partying their way through denial, if that what one thinks best.
$40,000 to the county in which the dislocated worker is located to spend as they see fit. For infrastructure development, for community assistance, or whatever. Each local county's need is difference and can't be met by one federal program, or a bunch of federal programs.
$40,000 per dislocated worker allocated to watershed restoration—removing unneeded roads and culverts that harm fish runs. These could be transition jobs for woods workers unable or unwilling to change.
We also propose to buy out public land welfare ranchers at the fair market value of their grazing privileges. This should satisfy both them and their bankers.
Some in Wallowa County believe the issue is a question of: "Are people more important than animals?" I would answer most affirmatively that people are. The reason I support the Endangered Species Act is based upon enlightened self-interest. Over one-third of our pharmaceuticals come from plants. The rosy periwinkle, a very endangered plant from Madagascar contains a compound that knocks out a rare form of cancer. The Pacific Yew tree, once considered a weed, gave us taxol, effective against late-stage ovarian cancer. A tree in the state of Sarawak in Malaysia was sampled and found to have a compound that killed the aid virus in a petri dish. When scientists went back, the tree had been logged. Others, of the same species, nearby did not have the compound.
Endangered species may hold the answer to questions we may not even yet know to ask.
The question over endangered species is not really one of balancing the interests of between the members of the generations that now inhabit the Earth, but of maintaining a balance between these generations and those that will follow us.
My detractors in Wallowa County harbor real fear. Their problem—and mine—is that they find it convenient to fear and demonize me, rather than face up to their real problems.
Rural areas have been declining in population since World War I. This population loss now seems to have stopped, but is being filled with urban refugees who come to the rural West today for different reasons than those a century ago.
We've logged off most of our forests. The question is simply one of will we save and restore what is left before logging ends. Beef consumption is declining about 1% year. Public land grazing in the West is the most marginal of ways to produce beef.
The traditional bell curve distribution of income in this country is turning upside down. Going is the relatively few poor, the large middle class and the relatively few rich. The rich are getting richer, and a few more of us are getting richer; but most of us are getting poorer, and the poor are getting poorer.
The profits of corporations no longer bear much relation to the quantity or quality of individual jobs.
There is another factor which is often overlooked. If you inquire about the brothers and sisters of this old guard, you'll find that they long ago moved to the city in seek of a better economic future. So did their aunts and uncles. So did their great aunts and great uncles. Those in rural areas most resistant to change are so because of a social, if not genetic, selection process which has occurred over the last century or more. Those left are the least capable of accepting change.
The challenge for environmentalists, and for communities in counties like Wallowa, is to take advantage of this ongoing economic and social transition by guiding it toward economically and ecologically sustainable activities.
This is easier said than done, and if history is any guide, it won't happen. But history is reason enough to make us try. As we do so, we must always keep in mind the following:
• The next generation of people is more important than the next quarter of profits.
• Ecologically sustainable activities are economically sustainable ones as well.
• Opportunity and education must be available to all.
• As society and the economy go forward, we can't afford to leave anyone behind.
• Nature bats last; there are limits to growth.


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Michelle Marciel
Professor Cogdell
March 13, 2014
The Materials in a Coil Mattress
Every year in the United States, around 40 million mattresses are sold (Mattress Stewardship Briefing Document). Mattresses play an important role in our daily lives. In today's society, we care a lot about comfort but we do not pay enough attention to the materials in a product that may directly affect our health. Although people frequently emphasize the importance of comfort, for a piece of furniture that we sleep on every night, it is essential to know what substances it may contain, because some materials include toxic chemicals. It is also valuable to understand the manufacturing process and acknowledge what happens when we dispose of these possibly toxic mattresses. As my group and I began to consider possible topics, we started by choosing futons but we quickly came to realize that the topic was too broad. Next, we decided to look into futon mattresses. However, this topic was too specific and did not have enough information. Ultimately, we chose to investigate mattresses. There are two main types of mattresses: coil and non-coil. After gathering enough research, we narrowed our topic to coil mattresses.
A mattress typically consists of three layers, the center/springs, then the supporting layer, followed by a quilt layer. For the center of a spring mattress, there are several options of coils. There are Bonnell/open coils, offset coils, continuous coils, and pocket coils. The coil examined throughout this paper is the pocket coil, which is made of steel wires and is shown in Figure 1. Steel is a secondary raw material. The primary raw materials used to form steel are coal, limestone, and iron ore (Steel and raw materials).
A support layer follows the center coil section. Comfort layers can consist of various materials such as latex, polyurethane foam, viscoelastic foam (a type of polyurethane foam), and cotton batting. There are two main kinds of natural latex, Dunlop and Talalay. The raw latex is collected from rubber trees. The difference between the two natural types is the way they are manufactured (Mattress Information). A third common type of latex is the synthetic latex. Another material found in a mattress is polyurethane (PU), which is a type of both rigid and flexible foam. "The chemical nature of the PU, the high air permeability, and the high inner surface area of the foam structure cause this material to be highly flammable" (Konig, A., et al., 469). Since polyurethane foam is highly flammable, it is required to have a fire retardant. A fire resistant material is used on mattresses in the United States because it is a required law. A natural substance that is commonly used is melamine, which is mixed with formaldehyde to create a melamine resin (the fire retardant). Formaldehyde can be absorbed by inhaling and/or through our skin. This chemical can have both minor and serious effects on human health.
Symptoms of low-level exposure include; runny nose, sore throat, cough, dermatitis, sleeping difficulties, headache, fatigue, breathing difficulties, sinus irritation, chest pain, frequent nausea, bronchitis, and decreased lung capacity. Signs of acute exposure include; abdominal pain, anxiety, coma, convulsions, diarrhea, and respiratory problems such as bronchitis, pneumonia or pulmonary edema (Healthy Home Test Kits).
Even when there is, only a small amount of formaldehyde on a mattress it can still take years for the chemical to disappear. Chemicals typically found in fire retardants are boric acid and antimony. Moreover, the fire retardant used the most right now for flexible polyurethane foam is tris (chloropropyl) phosphate or deca-BDE (decabromdiphenylether) (Konig, A., et al., 470). These chemicals incorporated into fire retardants can be highly toxic and no one really wants to sleep, night after night, on dangerous materials. Something to consider as an alternative for toxic fire retardants would be wool, which naturally acts as a fire barrier. Wool can be found in some mattresses, this material could be used as a more permanent solution for a fire retardant.
According to the article "Examining Viscoelastic Flexible Polyurethane Foam," viscoelastic foam is a kind of flexible polyurethane foam. Any further information, regarding the primary raw materials used to construct this foam, appears unavailable. The materials used in the viscoelastic foam maybe made of similar materials to the polyurethane foam since it is a type of polyurethane foam. "Although viscoelastic foam production technology has been available for more than 35 years, commercial products have only recently been made widely available to consumers" (Mattress Information). This may be a result of the product being newer; therefore, there is a lack of information provided. A fourth substance used in a support layer is cotton batting, which is a primary raw material. Cotton can contain harmful chemicals that are used for pesticides to help the crops grow.
The final outer layer is the quilt/top layer. This layer can consist of different substances; this paper will concentrate on polyester fabric. Polyester fibers "are long chain polymers derived from coal, air, water, and petroleum," which develop during chemical reactions amongst an acid and alcohol (Polyester Manufacturing). There are two types of polyester, PET (the most common) and PCDT. The main raw material in PET polyester is ethylene derived from petroleum. "It is oxidized to produce a glycol monomer dihydric alcohol which is further combined with another monomer, terephthalic acid at a high temperature in a vacuum. Polymerization, the chemical process that produces the finished polyester, is done with the help of catalysts" (Polyester Manufacturing).
Mattress construction involves several steps along the way. Once the size of the bed is decided, manufacturers begin by constructing the center pocket springs. The coils acquire their unique shape from tempering steel with heat or electricity. The electricity used in the production is a secondary raw material, which comes from coal – a primary raw material. These steel coils are individually enclosed in a pocket of fabric, linking them to adjacent coil-casing groups (Pepper). The number of coils in a mattress will vary depending on the size of the bed and the gauge/thickness of the wire. According to "Innerspring Mattress Information," the higher quality mattresses generally have a 13-gauge wire (Whitney). The author also points out that the higher gauged numbers are thinner wires. Moreover, to delay the process of corrosion some manufactures will add a plastic coating or enamel to the springs (Whitney). A majority of companies will have other specialized manufacturers construct the center springs. According to Pepper, after springs are fabricated and the mattress company acquires them, the workers will inspect the work. Then, the manufacturers will sew a fabric around the coils as an insulator, preventing the following layer from molding or being caught in the coils (Manufacturing Process of Mattress).
Next, in a mattress is the support layer, which determines the comfort level. In this section, there can be several layers of cushiony material depending on the company and the type of mattress. The materials that are used, are placed on both sides of the center, building the mattress outwards. As previously discussed, this mattress portion can consist of latex, polyurethane, viscoelastic, and cotton batting. This section can typically range from two to eight layers, while the thickness can range around one fourth of an inch to two inches (Manufacturing Process of Mattress). The final layer, commonly known as the quilt layer, provides a functional purpose along with a beautiful design. As noted above, this layer can consist of polyester fabric. To produce this layer, manufacturers generally use a giant quilting machine. The machine usually has a range of different needles to stitch the cover to a portion of backing material (Pepper). Stitching the mattress helps to avoid it from moving across the support layers. "Once the fabric is quilted, it is cut into panels that will fit the top and bottom of the mattress" (Pepper). The side portions of the mattress are taken from the material used for the top and bottom or designed individually on a border machine. Before adding the side panels to the mattress, any vents or handles have to be attached.
Once the three mattress layers are constructed, workers attach flanges. "Flanges are the connecting panels that are attached to the quilted cover of the mattress with the help of hog rings which are large, round staples. The flanges are attached to the top and bottom panels with the help of a specially modified sewing machine and the hogs rings are stapled to the flanges. During the closing operation, the hogs rings are secured to the innerspring unit" (Manufacturing Process of Mattress). After attaching the flanges, the most critical part of the mattress manufacturing takes place, the closing operation. According to Pepper, this process requires a movable sewing head that is located on a track. To accomplish this closing task "tape edge operators manually feed the top, bottom, and side panels and a heavy duty binding tape into the sewing machine as it moves around the mattress" (Pepper). It is crucial for the operators to know how much material to feed into the machine. Pepper states that, the final product will portray the tailor's professional expertise.
Once constructed and fully inspected, a mattress is sent to the packaging area. The first step in this area is to attach the warning label along with the care directions. Next, the mattress is packaged in a plastic or a paper cover, either by hand or by a machine. Mattresses can be sealed in bags or films, which are typically clear, made from flexible polyethylene. For additional protection, a boot film can be added. A boot film of red, blue, or black can be incorporated through an automated wrapper. Once a mattress is packaged and sealed up tight, it is ready for transportation. Throughout the life cycle of a mattress, these pieces of furniture are commonly transported by trucks. For extra support, some transportation vehicles will "line the beds with new or scrap corrugated cardboard" (Nelles).
In the article "Box Spring Mattress Fact Sheet," Lisa Sefcik states, mattresses can last between five to seven years. A person can tell a mattress needs replacing by the feel and the appearance. If the mattress looks as though it is sagging, it may be time to replace it. It is important to constantly rotate and flip a spring mattress to help lengthen the lifespan. Sefcik explains how a newer mattress needs rotating every two weeks for a few months and afterwards it can be rotated every couple of months. She also acknowledges that in between rotations, the mattress needs to be flipped. During the lifecycle of a mattress, repairs can be made in order to be reused. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission discussed in the "Mattress Stewardship Briefing Document" batting can be replaced, mattresses can be stripped down to the springs (as seen in Figure 2) and rebuilt, and various elements can be replaced with new or recycled materials.
Although renovations can be made, people generally tend to dispose of their old mattress to buy a brand new one. When people discard their mattresses two things can occur; the mattress or mattress parts can be recycled or the mattress can be sent directly to the dump. When mattresses are recycled, they are stripped down and their components are separated into different groups. "Mattress Stewardship Briefing Document" provides a chart explaining what certain materials can be recycled and into what products. The chart shows that the steels coils can be reused as scrap metal, while the polyurethane foam, cotton and other similar fibers can be incorporated into carpet underlay.
Meanwhile, "of the 40 million new mattresses and box springs sold every year, only a small percentage of the used mattresses they replace are recycled." In other words, the majority of these mattresses are being tossed into dumps (as seen in Figure 3). When people dispose of mattresses at a landfill, there is generally a "Landfill tipping fee" as the "Mattress Stewardship Briefing Document" calls it. These fees are based on the weight of the product. These fees can also results in illegal dumping because people are not willing to pay to dispose of their old mattress. Bulky, yet flexible mattresses can also cause problems when trying to compact and bury them in dumps. Another common issue found in landfills is with the steel springs. These coils can destroy equipment that is typically used to compact and shred products, therefore, certain facilities will require mattresses to be removed from the solid waste group. (Mattress Stewardship Briefing Document).
Mattresses are an important part of our lives; therefore, when purchasing a mattress we should investigate both the level of comfort and the materials inside. People sleep on their mattress without even knowing that what is beneath them can contain toxic chemicals. People need to understand the steps of a mattress' lifecycle and contemplate the possible outcomes of disposal methods. With all of this knowledge, people can make better-educated decisions when they are dealing with mattresses.
"ALL ABOUT MATTRESS COILS." All About Mattress Coils. Sit 'n Sleep, n.d. Web. 07 Feb. 2014. <https://www.sitnsleep.com/resources/article/all-about-mattress-coils>.
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Isaiah Goff
Christina Cogdell
Embodied Energy of a Spring Mattress
Sleeping is something we do on a regular basis. We depend on our mattress to provide us with comfort in order to get a good night rest. We spend almost half our life sleeping, but unless that mattress is sagging or it doesn't properly support us anymore do we have any thoughts about it. Sleep is one of our most routine tasks, and lets be honest, it's one of the best routines we have. With mattress production, the goal is less oriented on sustainability, and more focused on sales/monetary gain. The energy spent for the purpose our restful sleep should be enough for us to lose a few hours. My group decided to study and research the lifecycle of a pocket spring mattress in order to gain some knowledge and enlightenment about what a product goes through from cradle to grave (or cradle to cradle). I have been given the task of writing about embodied energy, which appears to be the connection between both materials as well as waste throughout the life of this given product. I will explain the information I found regarding the embodied energy in the production process of obtaining the very mattresses we sleep on.
Extraction and refinement as well as shipping of materials are the most costly, and energy intensive processes in the creation of a mattress. In Mattress and Box Spring Study, the energy breakdown in the production process is discussed. They state "the production of goods from…[mattress manufacturing] measured in 2002 producer price has cradle-to-gate greenhouse gas emissions of 129 kg of CO2E and energy requirements of 1,745 MJ." Their statement of "cradle-to-gate" refers to "all upstream economic activities, from drilling and mining, shipping, beneficiation and processing, including the actual manufacturing of the product." This process measured roughly 12 years ago consumed 484.72 kWh of energy from extraction, transportation, and production. As demand for mattresses hasn't changed much, it can be deduced that the statistic is still relevant, however as technology improves, energy consumption increases (in the case of automated or automatic machines). The study continues to break down the five most energy intensive portions that lead to the main amount of energy consumption by means of fossil fuel. The first and most energy intensive are Power Generation and Supply, which uses 449 MJ of energy. Second highest fuel consumption is 173.1 MJ and is used in the process of drilling, extracting and refining of Iron and Steel. Next is "Other Basic Organic chemical manufacturing" which includes materials such as latex, cotton, polyurethane etc. and uses 129.2 MJ. Trucks and transportation create the next highest energy use at 80.1 MJ. Lastly, Oil and Gas Extraction are the next largest consumers of energy using 25.8MJ of energy. The vast majority of the energy consumed during extraction, refinement and transportation is consumed by oil and gas, making the five most energy intensive portions (making up nearly 50 percent of the total energy use per mattress) heavily reliant on fossil fuels.
Upon looking for information about the energy used during the production process, I found that there are at least eight major machines (and possibly more for "high end" mattresses) required to create a pocket spring mattress. I found information about energy use of these machines on the website of a Chinese mattress machine manufacture called Xidengbao. This company provided information about each machine and their particular purpose as well as energy consumption by each machine. I will continue to explain these machines produced by Xidengbao in the following "production" paragraphs. In order to best represent the current times I chose the machines (typically the newest) to best represent the industry standard for mattress production.
The innermost structure of a mattress is the springs or coils. There are various types of coils used in mattresses, however to simplify the research my group chose to look into pocket springs. Pocket springs are made by a machine that coil and slice steel rods of different thickness into springs that are then dropped into pockets of fabric that are either stitched or glued closed. These pockets are connected as a single sheet of pockets that have one spring per pocket. A high-speed pocket spring machine is responsible for the process of cutting steel and encasing/closing the pockets. According to Xidengbao, the LR-PS-HX2/HF2 High Speed Pocket spring machine uses approximately 18 kilowatts of energy. As with every other machine used in the production process involved in making a mattress, the energy is derived from electricity.
The second part of the process is where the sheets of pocket springs are glued together to form a solid sheet of coils in the shape of any size mattress that is desired. The strip of pocket springs is fed into an automated machine that folds the sheets back and forth while gluing them together in order to create the mattress shape. Because there is less involved in the process of stacking and gluing the pockets together, this machine uses considerably less energy than the previous. Xidengbao's machine, the LR-PSA-95P Fully Automatic Pocket spring assembly machine uses 8kW of energy.
The third step in the manufacture process is the creation of the foam layers. This is by far the most energy-demanding portion of the production process. A machine creates layers of polyurethane or latex foam by atomizing (breaking polyurethane into small particles) and spraying the foam in different levels of density. The foam is sent out as a solid unit that will later need to be cut to size and thickness to properly fit each mattress. Depending on the mattress, it is possible to have 2 separate machines for different types of foam. Xidengbao's XLF-2400 automatic horizontal continuous foaming production line machine uses 130 kilowatts of energy to produce the foam. This stage is responsible for 74.2% of the overall energy consumption during the production process.
After creating the foam, the next step is to cut it down from a block to form the correct size to fit in a mattress. The XPQ-1650/2150 horizontal foam cutting machine by Xidengbao feeds the foam block through and is directed by a computer program to make exact cuts for the mattress padded layer. The entire process of cutting down and splitting the foam uses 8.32 kilowatts of electrical energy.
The outer layer of a mattress has a quilted top. This layer consists of two layers of fabric with an inner layer of cotton batting. These layers are sent through a machine where a computer driven system uses an industrial type sewing machine to create a desired quilted pattern. Material density and complexity of pattern can alter the power output used from this machine, however, the HF-DZ-1 High Speed Computerized Single Needle Quilting Machine (Xidengbao) uses approximately 8.8 kilowatts of electrical energy.
After all the separate parts of the mattress are created, cut, constructed or built, the next stage in the production process is assembly. Workers place the materials of the mattress together, making sure to have the same materials on either side. This includes the quilted top and bottom, layers of foam, and pocket springs. Once assembled, they use a tool called a WB-3C Highlift Tape Edge Machine (Xidengbao) which creates the outer edge of the mattress. This edge sometimes has handles, but often has a similar quilted pattern as the top and bottom. The machine uses only 1.5 kilowatts of energy to create the "edge tape", where a worker then installs it. The final step in the construction of a mattress is where the top and "taped" edge are sewn together to fully encase the inside materials. This last stage in the production process is done by a WY-2A Mattress Border Tape Sewing Machine and uses the least amount of energy in the entire process at a mere .58 kilowatts of energy. The production process is complete once all the edges are sewn closed.
The total embodied energy for the use of one set of machines in the production process is 175.2 kilowatts (630.72 MJ), which is entirely derived solely from electrical power. With large industry operators such as Tempur Sealy International, who own 270.8 million dollars worth of equipment (statistics from Form K-10 Annual Report Tempur Sealy International, inc.), it can be assumed that their electrical energy consumption is much higher than the one I projected, because it is likely they own and operate more than one set of machines per factory. Not to mention, the energy costs generated for use of machinery accounts only for machines used for creating the mattress itself. It does not include other utilities such as lights, cooling/heating, employee commute or shipment of materials.
All the machines used for creating the mattress itself during the production process use electrical energy for power. The actual production of a mattress harnesses the most electric energy while all of the other components (especially extraction and transportation) use fossil fuel. Tempur Sealy International reported purchasing 62.5 million dollars worth of raw materials. Their operational expenses in the past year reached 771.1 million dollars (statistics from Form K-10 Annual Report Tempur Sealy International, inc.). This cost includes electricity, transportation, shipping, and other various items such as utilities and raw materials for one of the largest mattress manufactures in the USA.
There are several different components that attribute to transportation, and they tend to happen between each step in producing a mattress. As with the majority of products sold in the US, many of them are imported. "Around 3 million of 38 million mattresses and box springs sold in the U.S. in 2010 were imports" (Mattress and Box Spring Study). With each imported mattress, there is an added cost for fuel, and aside from cost, we are contributing to extra use of fossil fuels for a slightly cheaper product (labor is cheaper outside the US). According to Mattress and Box Spring Study, there are "38 million mattresses and box springs were sold in the U.S. in 2010". This would have a direct correlation to shipping and therefore fuel consumption. Transportation happens between each step of the process. When materials are extracted, they are then shipped to mills where they are refined. After they are refined they are then shipped to the mattress manufacture. After a mattress is fully assembled, it is then shipped to a warehouse or sales floor. After it is sold, the new mattress is driven or shipped to the residence of the new mattress owner. Either dumping or recycling discards the old mattress, but regardless the outcome, the mattress is then shipped yet again. Transportation to a recycling center alone is explained when Mattress and Box Spring Study states, "three quarters of the collected end-of-life mattresses and box springs are first driven to a transfer station or other nearby collection site in a private vehicle, and the maximum length of a round-trip to collect each mattress and box spring set in a combination truck is 320km (200 miles)… Together with energy and greenhouse gas data for light duty vehicles and combination trucks, this results in primary energy demand for reverse logistics of around 60 MJ and cradle-to-gate greenhouse gas emissions of roughly 4 kg CO2E per mattress and box spring set." "Dumping the mattress in a landfill uses 52.4MJ of energy in transportation" (Mattress and Box Spring Study).
The last and final stage of a mattress is disposal. Although we hardly think about what happens to our junk when we dispose of it, but the process of disposal is somewhat energy intensive as well. There are three major disposals of mattresses. The first and "greenest" way is recycling, because 85% of a mattress is recyclable (Mattress and Box Spring Study). "Primary energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions come from the transportation of the mattress and box spring from their pickup location to the landfill, as well as the construction, maintenance, and operation of the landfill itself… An estimated 69.3 MJ and 8.3 kg CO2E are avoided whenever an entire set is reused instead of landfilled" (Mattress and Box Spring Study). Although the "ideal" method of disposal is recycling, the vast majority of mattresses end up in the dump anyways. Due to manual processing (as opposed to automatic or machine processing) in the disassembly of a mattress, "the energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions from mattress and box spring reprocessing are minimal… Energy consumption data from the largest mattress recycling facility in the U.S. results in 8 MJ of primary energy per mattress and box spring set..." (Mattress and Box Spring Study). A little over half of the recycling energy is derived from oil and gasoline use for basic machines, while the remainder is derived from electricity.
The total embodied energy in the production of a mattress is astronomically high…It's unbelievable to think that such a mindless item such as a mattress would take so much energy to produce from start to finish. "The cradle-to-gate primary energy requirements were around 33 billion MJ NCV. 1,780 MJ NCV [is] the embodied primary energy per average mattress and box spring set."( Mattress and Box Spring Study) Considering roughly half the energy is derived from fossil fuels, this is a massive amount of consumed fossil fuels.
Through much research I have most definitely been enlightened by the overwhelming use of energy throughout the production process of a mattress. My research pertained to one specific item, and although quite limited in resources and statistics, it is shocking to know that average yearly production results a net energy use of 33 billion mega joules of energy derived from both fossil fuel and electricity. Prior to this project, I had no idea the overwhelming consumption product based industries consumed on a yearly basis. Considering my group chose to do our studies on a mattress surely does not help me sleep at night knowing I personally have contributed to such an enormous use of energy. The most unsettling part is that my research simply pertains to one item. It does not even begin to touch the tip of the iceberg of the product industry as a whole. As I look around at the objects we use on a daily basis, I wonder how much energy, how much waste, how many finite materials we have destroyed in the idea of simply decorating our living spaces. As a material society that focuses on rapidly accumulating and discarding objects, I begin to wonder how much do we waste in total? How can we better design objects so as to reduce waste, materials and energy consumption? The statistics about energy use in terms of recycling and waste were some of the most shocking to me. In my unrealistic imagination, when mattresses are disposed (or nearly any product for that matter) they are mostly recycled and materials are re-purposed. I never thought about the energy used to transport them to a facility or how much of the mattress is in fact recyclable but we do not invest to recycle them because, quite simply, the cost is too high for material separation. The results of my research were definitely eye opening. The amount of energy consumed should cause us to question our way of life, and think about how we live, and ultimately we should think about the cost we pay to have a good night rest.
1. "Mattress Production Process of Akant Ltd." YouTube. YouTube, 05 May 2009. Web. 13 Mar. 2014. video showing and explaining pocket spring manufacture process
2. "Tempur Sealy International, Inc. - Annual Report." Tempur Sealy International, Inc. - Annual Report. EDGAR Online, 21 Feb. 2014. Web. 13 Mar. 2014. data about mattress manufacture expenditures
3. "XIDENGBAO MATTRESS MACHINERY (GUANGZHOU) CO.,LIMITED CHINA XIDENGBAO MATTRESS MACHINERY CO.,LIMITED." Mattress Machines,Mattress Equipment,Pocket Spring Machine,Bedding Machinery, Bedding Equipment. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2014. This website contained all the information regarding standard manufacture automated machinery and electrical energy consumption by these machines
4. "Mattress and Box Spring Case Study: The Potential Impacts of Extended Producer
Responsibility in California on Global Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions." Mattress and Box Spring Case Study: The Potential Impacts of Extended Producer Responsibility in California on Global Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions. California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle), 20 Nov. 2012. Web. 07 Feb. 2014. <http://www.calrecycle.ca.gov/publications/Documents/1430%5C20121430.pdf>. Provides detailed energy information pertaining to entire embodied energy from extraction to recycling/disposal
5. "Manufacturing Process of Mattress." Manufacturing Process of Mattress. Textile Exchange, n.d. Web. 07 Feb. 2014. <http://www.teonline.com/knowledge-centre/manufacturing-process-mattress.html>. provides information about some of the machines and processes of mattress manufacturing
6. Griffiths, Tony, Charles Coe, Fabio Fiori, and Ian Berry. "Mattress Recycling." Waste and
Resource Management 166.4 (2013): 158-66. ICE, Nov. 2013. Web. 5 Mar. 2014. <https://vpn.lib.ucdavis.edu/,DanaInfo=ucelinks.cdlib.org,Port=8888+sfx_local?sid=EI:Compendex&genre=article&issn=1747-6526&date=2013&volume=166&issue=4&spage=158&epage=166&title=Proceedings+of+Institution+of+Civil+Engineers%3A+Waste+and+Resource+Management&atitle=Mattress+recycling&aulast=Griffiths&aufirst=Tony&isbn=>. source for information about the dumping and recycling of mattresses
Heaji Richards
Design 40A Winter 2014
Professor Cogdell
Furniture Design: Coil Mattress
13 February 2014
Waste and Emissions of Coil Mattress
Until the 20th century, mattresses generally consisted of lumpy pads filed with horsehair, cotton, or rags. Lower class men and women had to rely on fabric sacks stuffed with straw or crop debris. In addition, these offered an inconsistent texture, and such mattresses were hard to clean, and often were filled with soil and insects ("All About Mattress Coils"). It wasn't until the late 19th century when small manufacturers began to produce mattresses commercially. With the development of the box spring and John Boyd Dunlop creating a manufacturing technology that turned vulcanized rubber sap into latex foam, the design of the mattress evolved into what it is today ("The History of the Bed Mattress"). Yet, as the mass production of the commercial mattress as well as its comfort continues to increase, so does the waste and chemical production emitted from the production process.
Mattresses are generally consisted of two different layers, the comfort layer and the support layer. The comfort layer comprises of materials such as polyurethane foam, polyester fabric, and natural fibers. The support layer or innerspring unit as its called is created with a series of coils and springs. This support layer acts as the core of the mattress. Between the two primary layers is the upholstery, which is made of materials such as latex, polyurethane foams, and viscoelastic. In order for companies to pass fire regulations, these mattresses are then applied with fire retardants, which can be found in the comfort layers, support layers, or even both. These materials that consist of the mattress are composed to create a more comfortable and safe sleep atmosphere, but what the industrial companies are not telling us is the toxins and wastes that are emitted from these specific materials ("How Products Are Made").
Polyurethane foam for example is the most commonly used material in the mattress construction. This material can be found in both the comfort layers and the upholstery. Although this material is the most popular, chemicals used in synthetic foams such as this one emit fumes. These fumes can cause reactions to people with chemical sensitivities. This process is known as off gassing ("Mattress Buyers Guide to Off Gassing"). An interesting experiment conducted on chemicals emitted from the mattresses was to test the correlation of respiratory tract irritations and polyurethane foams. To test the hypothesis that polyurethane foam from mattresses cause respiratory irritations and decreased airflow, four mattress consisted of polyurethane foams were created and Swiss Webster mice were then exposed to the emission given off from the mattresses for one to two hour periods. Results indicated that all four mattresses caused combinations of upper-airways irritation, lower-airways irritation and decreases in mid-expiratory airflow velocity in the mice With experiments such as this one, the conclusion that polyurethane foams causing harmful reactions is very clear. Since the mattress industry is not required by law to disclose the chemicals produced from polyurethane foams, companies are able to get away with these toxic chemicals emitted during production and distribution (Anderson et al., 2000).
Due to the high air permeability and the high inner surface area of the polyurethane's foam structure causes this material to be highly flammable. Thus the need and application for fire retardants become a necessity. Yet, although these retardants are applied for fire safety, the use of halogenated flame retardants are not considered ideal due to high emission levels. One common substance in flame-retardants is boric acid. This substance is also known as a pesticide for killing cockroaches. Some of the other chemicals found in fire retardants are antimony and decabromodiphenyl oxide, which are both possible human carcinogens. Other toxic substances used in fire retardants on mattresses are Poly Brominated Diphenyl Ethers, also known as PBDE'S. Mattress manufacturers state that these chemicals stay trapped in the bed, but results speak otherwise. Small amounts of these chemicals seep through with the process of off gassing and the human body absorbs the toxins through both inhalation and through our skin. The issue of these chemicals does not come from the instant exposure of these toxins, but instead from the repetitive exposure which gradual leads to toxin buildups in the body. These toxin build ups cause harmful reactions to the human body which includes, dizziness, headaches, breathing difficulties, fatigue, nausea, and difficulty concentrating. Fire safety is a serious concern, but there are other ways than polluting our bodies with industrial toxins. Some possible replacements would be the use of organic mattress manufacturers who use natural substances instead of harmful chemicals for fire retardants ("A Toxic Fire Retardant Mattress").
The metal coils that are located in the innerspring mattress are considered as the core of the bed. These coils are placed in order to provide stable back support. Without these coils, the mattress wouldn't have any firmness to itself. The metal coils and springs provide a great source of support but it also enhances a dangerous type of pollution. Recent research has linked mattress coils to EMFs (electromagnetic fields) and radiation pollution. The connection is that the coils within the mattresses act as an antenna attracting and amplifying whatever radiation is circulating throughout your room. Antennas are nothing more than simple metal objects of appropriate length and size to match wavelengths of a specific frequency of electromagnetic radiation. Since the mattress's springs are made of metal, and the length of a bed is exactly half the wavelength of FM and TV transmissions that are being broadcasted, the evidence that mattresses acting as antennas is very conceivable ("Your Mattress Could Be Acting as a Cancer-Causing Radiation Antenna").
The last materials that were considered harmful and gave chemical emissions came from the adhesive bonds and polyester fibers. The polyester fibers are found in the comfort layers of the mattress and the adhesives that bind the mattress layers and wood frames together contain formaldehyde, which is highly toxic. The adhesive bonds emit dangerous VOC's (Volatile Organic Compounds) into the air, which are associated with symptoms such as rashes, headaches, and blurred vision. To further assist the theory that mattress adhesives release harmful toxins, a study in 2006 was performed on a memory foam mattress and a traditional innerspring mattress in which emissions from these beds were collected over a 96-hour period. In the end the memory foam mattress emitted 61 VOC chemicals whereas the innerspring mattress recorded 39 different chemicals. In addition to the formaldehyde chemical known in the adhesive bonds, other chemicals such as styrene, isopropyl benzene, limonene, trimethylbenzene, nitrobenzene, ethylbenzene and dichloridebenzene were found in the adhesives as well. Many of these chemicals are solvents and are listed as Class C carcinogens and are classified harmful by the EPA, The California Health and Wealth fare Agency, and the International Agency of Research of Cancer (IARC) (Brackman, 2010).
The adhesives that are binding the mattress layers are not the last material causing dangerous waste emissions but polyester fibers located in the comfort layers are producing just as, if not worse emissions. Polyester fibers are made from synthetic polymers that are made esters of dihydric alcohol and terpthalic acid, which means both of them are highly toxic and these toxins are not completely removed after the manufacturing process and find easy entry through the absorption of our body and inhalation similar to how the chemicals from the adhesives are consumed. Many health concerns have been confirmed due to the excessive use of these polyester fabric and fibers. Some of which are, chronic and severe respiratory infections as well as skin problems such as rashes, itching, redness, and dermatitis. In addition to human health risks, Polyester is very harmful and dangerous to the environment as well since polyester is hard to recycle or biodegraded and its production disposes toxins in the water and emits lots of pollutants in the air the ("Fashionbi 247." The Health Risks of Toxic Fibers and Fabrics.). However, although most mattresses contain materials that emit harmful toxins, there are still healthful and more beneficial alternatives for mattress choices. Some of these choices would be replacing materials with pure natural rubber latex in which the process of extracting the liquid latex is much like tapping maple trees for syrup. This process makes for a sustainable product and can be accomplished with no added chemicals. An innerspring mattress can also be developed naturally and non-off gassing with the use of a natural insulator, latex, wool, and/or with cotton layers ("Mattress Buyers Guide to Off Gassing"). Yet, even though we can aid in the reduction of toxic waste emissions from the materials, an even more difficult energy and waste emission presents itself and is focused towards a different target.
The transportation and distribution of the mattresses causes more environmental concerns than it does to humans. Most of the films and bags used to package mattresses and foundation during transportation and distribution are made of clear, pliant polyethylene. Other options include rigid polypropylene or jute boot bags, which are commonly imported from china. Since mattresses are dragged instead of carried across concrete plant floors, the film used to wrap them must be considerably strong and thick. Thus a petroleum-based "monolayer", or single-layer plastic film is often used in addition to the polyethylene films. Extruders who work to produce these films are constantly devising stronger yet thinner resin formulations to help hold prices down, while still meeting mattress industry requirements for toughness. Although these films help prevent the mattress from getting ruined during the transportation process these present films and protective layers are not seen as "environmentally friendly" options since little if any recycled content is generally found in mattress films or bags ("Mattress Packaging Equipment to Keep Beds Clean, Costs down"). Although Polyethylene can be recycled, most of the commercial polyethylene ends up in landfills and in the oceans making the great pacific patch. Polyethylene is not considered biodegradable, as it takes several centuries until it is efficiently degraded ("Polyethylene Is Extremely Harmful"). Furthermore, plastics of polyethylene use around 6.45 kg of oil per kg, which results in 3.723kg of greenhouse gas emissions ("PET (polyethylene Terephthalate)"). In addition to the environmental impact, Polyethylene can also be harmful to humans as well. Potentially chemicals such as the plasticizer phthalate may leach from polyethylene. This chemical in particular has been associated with hormonal imbalances, increases in allergies, and reduced fertility. Other studies have shown that phthalate may also contribute to the development of obesity and breast cancer ("What Is Polyethylene?"). The polypropylene is also another form of plastic very similar to polyethylene. Although studies have shown that plastics made of polypropylene composites showcase no toxicity chemicals, the environmental damage is the same. Since polypropylene takes several centuries for natural degradation, most of these plastics end in landfills and pollute the environment with CO2 emissions. The materials and packaging of mattresses cause significant damage to both the environment and humans through its waste emissions, yet the greatest cause of waste production from mattresses comes from its life cycle. From beginning manufacturing until the end of the mattresses life to the mattresses reprocessing, waste continues to emit from the product and its contributors.
The 5 factors that out put the highest greenhouse gas emissions and energy contributions towards mattress production are iron and steel mills, power generations and supplies, truck transportation, oil and gas extraction, and other basic organic chemical manufacturing. These five factors together produce 94.4 kg of CO2 greenhouse gas emissions per production. The energy required in MJ for these five totaled 856.1. The statistics above showcase the amount of greenhouse gas and energy required for the production, manufacturing, and transportation of just a single mattress unit. These numbers were taken according to the trade and industry statistics in the U.S. in 2010 and during this year over 38 million mattresses and box spring units were sold. Of the 38 million mattresses and box springs, 3 million were considered as imports. The overall green house gas emissions produced from mattresses in 2010 equaled 2.4 million metric tons of CO2E, while the overall primary energy requirements were around 33 billion MJ NVC ("Mattress and box spring case study"). The contributors in the production of mattresses are creating drastic emissions and wastes as the mattress unit itself.
Once mattresses reach the end of their life cycle they most likely end up in a landfill. Primary energy demand and green house gas emissions come from the transportation of the mattress from their pickup location to the landfill, as well as the construction, maintenance, and operation of the landfill itself. Additional greenhouse gas emissions come from the chemical and biological degradation process of the mattress materials in the landfill. Yet an estimated 69.3 MJ and 8.3 kg CO2E are avoided whenever an entire set is reused instead of land filled. Additionally recycling diverts at least 85 percent of the mattress mass from landfills which estimates an additional energy and green house savings of 58.8 MJ and 7.1 kg CO2E, which is about 15 percent less than in a mattress reuse scenario. Although mattress recycling requires transportation as well as reprocessing of the products the cut in greenhouse gas emissions and energy wastes are significant. Together with energy and greenhouse gas data for light duty vehicles and combination trucks for the mattress transportation during the recycling period, results in primary energy demand of around 60 MJ and overall greenhouse gas emissions of roughly 4 kg CO2E per mattress set. Since automated disassembly in mattress recycling facilities is not used in recycling operations, manual disassembly is therefore required for recycling and reprocessing. This manual labor results in 8 MJ of primary energy per mattress and .55 kg of CO2 emissions ("Mattress and box spring case study"). Although the activities of recycling and reusing divert the end of life cycle of a mattress from the landfills, recycling of mattresses are uncommonly practiced and applied. In the end most of these mattresses are still sent to landfills to sit and produce constant greenhouse gas emissions and environmental waste ("Mattress and box spring case study").
In conclusion the production and manufacturing of mattresses produce a significant amount of waste. Whether it is the materials releasing toxic wastes harmful to humans, the energy and environmental pollutants during the distribution and transportation, or the green house gas emissions emitted during the life cycle of a mattress, the wastes that is extruded is a very serious issue and one that should be taken of more concern. Yet, in recent years the push to minimize mattress waste has undoubtedly taken a turn for the better. With legislative pressuring manufacturers towards mattress recycling and the development of safer and non-toxic chemical and material replacements the waste cycle of the mattress will continue to diminish and the evolution of the mattress will continue to grow.
Anderson, Rosalind C., and Julius H. Anderson. "Respiratory Toxicity of Mattress Emissions in Mice." Archives of Environmental Health: An International Journal 55.1 (2000): 38-43. Print.
"ALL ABOUT MATTRESS COILS." All About Mattress Coils. Sit 'n Sleep, n.d. Web. 07 Feb. 2014. <https://www.sitnsleep.com/resources/article/all-about-mattress-coils>.
"A Toxic Fire Retardant Mattress." A Toxic Fire Retardant Mattress. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Mar. 2014. <http://www.zenabode.com/fire-retardant-mattress.html>.
Brackman, Adam. "Is Your Mattress Toxic? (Hint: Probably)." Is Your Mattress Toxic? (Hint: Probably) | New Living. New Living, 7 July 2010. Web. 7 Feb. 2014. <http://www.newliving.net/uncategorized/mattress-toxic-hint/>.
EcoMall. "WHAT'S IN YOUR MATTRESS?" WHAT'S IN YOUR MATTRESS? - Ecomall. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Mar. 2014. <http://www.ecomall.com/greenshopping/whitelotus.htm>.
"Fashionbi 247." The Health Risks of Toxic Fibers and Fabrics. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Mar. 2014. <http://fashionbi.com/newspaper/the-health-risks-of-toxic-fibers-and-fabrics>.
Hartman, Eviana. "Mattress Eco-Matters: Don't Take It Lying Down." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 06 Apr. 2008. Web. 07 Feb. 2014. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/03/AR2008040303081.html>.
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Mast Business Directory. "Factors That Need Consideration While Starting Manufacturing for Beds and Mattresses." Mast Business Directory. Mastbusiness.com, n.d. Web. 07 Feb. 2014. <http://www.mastbusiness.com/bizarticles/ba465/>.
"Mattress and Box Spring Case Study: The Potential Impacts of Extended Producer Responsibility in California on Global Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions." Mattress and Box Spring Case Study: The Potential Impacts of Extended Producer Responsibility in California on Global Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions. California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle), 20 Nov. 2012. Web. 07 Feb. 2014. <http://www.calrecycle.ca.gov/publications/Documents/1430%5C20121430.pdf>.
"Mattresses and Box Springs." Organic Grace. Organic Grace, n.d. Web. 07 Feb. 2014.
"Mattress Buyers Guide to Off Gassing." Articlesbase.com. Articlesbase.com, 17 Dec. 2008. Web. 07 Feb. 2014. <http://www.articlesbase.com/sleep-articles/mattress-buyers-guide-to-off-gassing-688552.html>.
"Mattress Construction." Mattress InformationMattress Construction. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Feb. 2014. <http://matresses101guide.com/Mattress_Information_Mattress_Construction.html>.
"Mattress Packaging Equipment to Keep Beds Clean, Costs down." BedTimes. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Mar. 2014. <http://bedtimesmagazine.com/2009/03/mattress-packaging-equipment-to-keep-beds-clean-costs-down/>.
"Mattress Stewardship Briefing Document." Product Stewardship Institute, Inc. | Mattress Stewardship Briefing Document. Product Stewardship Institute, Inc., 25 July 2011. Web. 7 Feb. 2014. <http://www.productstewardship.us/associations/6596/files/Mattress_Stewardship_Briefing_Document_FINAL.pdf>
Pepper, Dan. "How Products Are Made-Mattress." How Mattress Is Made. Advameg, Inc., n.d. Web. 07 Feb. 2014. <http://www.madehow.com/Volume-1/Mattress.html>.
"PET (polyethylene Terephthalate)." Environmental Impact. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Mar. 2014. <http://envimpact.org/node/14>.
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Sefcik, Lisa. "Box Spring Mattress Fact Sheet." Overstock.com: Online Shopping. Overstock.com, n.d. Web. 07 Feb. 2014. <http://www.overstock.com/guides/box-spring-mattress-fact-sheet>.
"The History of the Bed Mattress." The History of the Bed Mattress. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Mar. 2014. <http://www.slideshare.net/radar0arrow/the-history-of-the-bed-mattress>.
"Your Mattress Could Be Acting as a Cancer-Causing Radiation Antenna." Mercola.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2014. <http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/08/18/your-box-spring-mattress-could-be-acting-as-a-gigantic-cancercausing-radiation-antenna.aspx>.
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Whitney, Nicole. "Innerspring Mattress Information." Innerspring Mattress Information | EHow. Demand Media, 25 June 2010. Web. 07 Feb. 2014. <http://www.ehow.com/about_6657734_innerspring-mattress-information.html>.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
BLACKSBURG, Va., March 19, 2003 – Gov. Mark Warner will help to unveil the Hermie Sadler "Go Team Virginia" race car today, which will feature the paint scheme of Virginia Tech and three other state universities during the 2003 NASCAR season. The official announcement is scheduled for 11 a.m. on Wednesday, March 19 on the grounds of the State Capitol in Richmond.
"Needless to say this will be an incredible financial opportunity for each of the schools, but it will also be a chance for great national television exposure during the races," said Locke White, director of licensing and trademark administration for Virginia Tech. "In addition, this is a fine educational opportunity for students who will be involved."
Sadler, who drove the Virginia Lottery car last year, approached Virginia universities with the idea for the Go Team Virginia car several months ago. Each of the four universities involved -- Virginia Tech, James Madison University, the University of Virginia, and Virginia Commonwealth University -- will take turns having its design on the car. Tech will be featured at least twice, during the March 23 race at Bristol and the October 19 race at Martinsville. Plans call for an in-car camera during the Bristol race. The Tech car could get a third race if enough Hokie fans join the Go Team Virginia club at www.goteamva.com.
The car serves an educational purpose. A team of Tech graduate marketing students worked to attract associate sponsors and are holding a promotion on the Virginia Tech Drillfield on March 20 (rainsite is the patio at the bookstore on campus). They are also planning a "pit crew challenge" as a post-race promotional. The students will work on merchandising and licensing of products and will also write a paper on what they've learned.
"This experience has been an incredible one," said Jessica Neal, team leader. "We have all had the chance to apply marketing and what we have learned in the classroom to the real world. And I will admit it is not as easy as the books make it sound. I think this has been very educational for our entire team."
Tech will also earn royalty money from sales of licensed goods and from associate partners on the car.
In addition, because Virginia Tech is helping Sadler with the sponsorship program, the Tech car will be featured in the new NASCAR Racing 2003 Season video game from Sierra Entertainment. In the game, players have the opportunity to "drive" for any NASCAR team, giving Hokie fans a chance to race Sadler's Virginia Tech car against Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, or any other driver in the circuit.


text:
Excerpt from Oh Serafina!
by Giuseppe Berto
translated by Gregory Conti
From CHAPTER THE FOURTH
In which, as Signora Palmira
remains rather frustrated,
another character leaves us.
He left, as is only natural, for his wedding journey. He had told the bride that, for their honeymoon, they would be going to the city of the Saint, and she had asked him if by chance he was referring to Padua, the city of Saint Anthony, which she had never seen but which she didn't have much desire to see, and he had replied that it wasn't Padua, and so she, a bit audaciously, had thought of San Remo, where at that very time they would be holding the Song Festival that ever since she was a little girl she had watched on TV, all three nights, before some obscure oversight committee had imposed on an entire country to do without two of the three. There, she thought, her strange and in many ways gloomy husband, by taking her to San Remo for the Festival, was fighting the arrogant callousness of people who, their own hearts having hardened, wanted everyone else's to harden too. Fascists, Palmira called them, even though now, by matrimony and wealth, she was no longer a proletarian.
But, instead of San Remo, the city of the popular songs, Signora Palmira came to find herself in the city of Saint Francis of the downtrodden, Assisi, where, shit, there was a festival of sacred music going on.
However, it wasn't for the sacred music that Augustus the Second had made the long journey to a place that was, all in all, out of the way, nor for the olive trees that "made the slopes pallid and smiling with sanctity," nor for the clear sky and breathable air. He had pushed himself all the way there for the sole purpose of admiring, in person and up close, the famous painting by Giotto whose photographic reproduction he had hung in the Administration, on the wall opposite his desk.
Indeed, upon their arrival in the town so sweetly perched on its hills, Augustus the Second, even before going to drop their bags at the "Sister Moon" pension, where he had reserved a double room with bath, ran, holding his recent bride by the hand, to steal his way into the Upper Basilica, where he effortlessly discovered his painting. Nobody had ever told him so, but he knew that it was right there where indeed it was.
He stood before it, immediately fascinated, but then also a bit amazed and bewildered, not so much because of the extraordinary nature of the deed represented, for to him there was nothing extraordinary about it, but rather because, voila!, through the art of a consummate painter, something so fundamentally normal as chatting with a few songbirds was portrayed as sacred, or even miraculous, and in the end he felt, not without trepidation, caught up in the sacredness. And as this sort of spiritual uplift pervaded him, he kept on holding his recent bride by the hand, maybe out of distraction, or maybe because unconsciously he was hoping that even she, perhaps helped in some way by the flux of emotion that he himself was undoubtedly emanating, would rise to the sphere of superior perception and supernatural relation that we are accustomed to calling mysticism. But Signora Palmira, on account of her nature and constitution, was not cut out for such celestial journeys, and anyway the thing couldn't even get off the ground due to the intervention of a humble Franciscan friar who came to say, so the lady was dressed in a way that was a bit too revealing, fine; so instead of praying she was constantly working her chewing gum, fine; but the transistor radio, crackling with the silly songs of that profane festival, had better be turned off.
"If that's the way it is, we'll go outside," replied Palmira, full of decorum, and she put the accent on "we" so the little friar would understand that she would also be depriving the cult of Saint Francis of her husband who, if he had married her without so much as discussing it, must be the kind of jerk who did everything other people wanted him to do.
But her husband, without taking his eyes off of the sacred painting, replied, "You go outside, and don't break my balls."
Signora Palmira looked at him, at first incredulous but then very quickly indignant, hating him more than she had hated him up to that moment, because she could see perfectly well that the jerk would not be moved. So she stiffened her back and, still working her gum and listening to the radio, went out to the square in front of the church where, little by little, her anger waning but her self-pity waxing, she began to think that their marriage, which she had firmly desired not to say plotted for, might actually be a calamity if the man she married, instead of taking her to the San Remo Festival, had brought her to this place for losers that made her feel so sad.
Eight days they stayed in Assisi, and she never again set foot in the Basilica, where that friar had treated her so discourteously. She stayed in bed with her trusty radio and her thoughts, or, still listening to the radio but with fewer bad thoughts, she would go sit in the sun at a table in some outdoor café.
He, on the other hand, outfitted with a hunting stool he had bought for himself, spent the whole day, until the light grew too dim, sitting in front of his fresco, apparently a dullard but actually searching, although confusedly and at bottom without a lot of torment, a more uplifting justification for having found himself in the world talking to birds. Who knows, maybe he would have managed to find that more uplifting justification, or rather, in plain words, he might at least have gotten closer to his own state of holiness, but for the fact that in him, as in any other being, but in a form certainly more exalted and distinct, there was both good and evil, the wolf and the little boy, so that, after all that daytime uplift, when darkness fell, in a sort of schizophrenic dichotomy, he was overcome with lust and wantonness. So, in the double-room with bath at the pension "Sister Moon," he threw himself like a mad man on the body of his bride.
He relished that body to the point of delirium, not only its perfectly modeled buttocks, but also everything about it that was soft and curvaceous. And there was plenty to relish. Abundant, firm breasts, round tummy, raised pubic mound, glorious hips, shoulders and arms and feet. He gazed at it, caressed it, kissed it, licked it, all the while emitting sounds of sensual gratification.
The bride, gum in her mouth and radio at her ear, let him do as he wished. Only sometimes, when it seemed to her that he was dragging things out a little too much, she would intervene to ask, "But when are we going back home? We can't spend all this time away from the factory!"
"Signorina Rosa will look after the factory," he answered, still grazing.
And she took offense. "She's deaf, blind, old, and brainless. What do you mean she'll look after the factory."
"She'll look after it. She knows how things were done in my grandfather's time, bless his soul."
Signora Palmira would have liked to tell him exactly what she thought about his blessed grandfather and his entire family of nut cases, but she held back, waiting for a more opportune time. She felt, how to put it, as though she were expanding.
Anyway, the time eventually came for them to head home.
As soon as they arrived, Augustus the Second went to the door of the bedroom where his mother had shut herself in, and said, "I'm back, Mama. Everything went fine."
He got, obviously, no response.
Signora Belinda, as everyone knew by now, was not doing well at all. Her personal physician, Doctor Bardi, had come to examine her a few days ago and he was worried. Unable to come up with a diagnosis, he had advised hospitalization, but the patient had said no, and had refused to allow the doctor to examine her again. So her personal physician was kept outside the door too, asking her questions that never got an answer: Had she had a bowel movement? Did she have a fever? Feel pain, nausea, dizziness? Nothing.
A few days later, however, she sent for her son. She didn't even look at him. She waited for him to come to the side of the bed, and said to him, "You're the one who wanted me to die."
Augustus the Second did not comment.
After a long pause, Signora Belinda added, "Your father was a halfwit, you're a total nitwit, and your wife is a whore."
Even then Augustus the Second made no comment.
Signora Belinda let an even longer silence go by, summoned her energies, and concluded, "The child that will be born is not yours. The father is Carlo Vigeva. And now, get out of here, let me die in peace."
She died during the night, without any further disturbance.
Giuseppe Berto (1914-1978) started writing novels when he was a prisoner of war in Hereford, Texas, from 1943 to 1946. He went on to write some seven novels, as well plays and many screenplays, including several based on his own novels. He won all of Italy's major literary awards, two of them in the same year for his masterpiece Il male oscuro (1964). All of his novels except La gloria (1978) and Oh, Serafina! (1973) have also been published in English.
Gregory Conti recently translated The Fault Line: Traveling the Other Europe, From Finland to Ukraine, published by Rizzoli Ex Libris. In addition, Conti has translated works by Rosetta Loy, Mario Rigoni Stern, Tiziano Scarpa, and Alessandro Barbero. After growing up in Pittsburgh and studying at Notre Dame (B.A. in American Studies, 1974), at Yale (M.A. Am. Studies, 1976), and at Yale Law School (J.D., 1980), he immigrated to Italy and now teaches at the University of Perugia. Follow his work on his website.


text:
Having lunch at a busy suburban café in Mumbai. I turned in my seat to signal for the waiter to bring the bill.
As I did so, a father at the table behind me admonished his 3-year-old daughter who until now had been ignoring all requests to sit still.
"See that Uncle" he told her, while pointing in my direction. "He is getting angry. He will take you away to America! Do you want to go to America?"


text:
Primal Elements soaps
vegetable glycerin soap by the slice in a variety of scents and designs.
Use the form on the right to contact us.
You can edit the text in this area, and change where the contact form on the right submits to, by entering edit mode using the modes on the bottom right.
460 Main st.
Bethlehem, Pa. 18018
The Foo Foo Shoppe offers a wide range of bath and body products from the finest brands on the market today.Lotions, body wash, soaps, hand creams, and perfumes made in the USA. We also carry hundreds of different kinds of Rubber ducks (Having a bath without a Rubber duck just isn't right) We also have a wide range of fun products. The Foo Foo Shoppe, a fusion of elegance and humor!
vegetable glycerin soap by the slice in a variety of scents and designs.


text:
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Kundu, Partha P and Bhowmick, Tuhin and Swapna, Ganduri and Kumar, Pavan GV and Nagaraja, Valakunja and Narayana, Chandrabhas (2014) Allosteric Transition Induced by Mg2+ Ion in a Transactivator Monitored by SERS. In: JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY B, 118 (20). pp. 5322-5330.
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Lahiri, Debojyoti and Bhowmick, Tuhin and Pathak, Biswarup and Shameema, Oottikkal and Patra, Ashis K and Ramakumar, Suryanarayanarao and Chakravarty, AR (2009) Anaerobic Photocleavage of DNA in Red Light by Dicopper(II) Complexes of 3,3'-Dithiodipropionic Acid. In: Inorganic Chemistry, 48 (01). pp. 339-349.
Roy, Mithun and Bhowmick, Tuhin and Santhanagopal, Ramkumar and Ramakumar, Suryanarayan and Chakravarty, Akhil R (2009) Photo-induced double-strand DNA and site-specific protein cleavage activity of L-histidine (mu-oxo)diiron(III) complexes of heterocyclic bases. In: Dalton Transactions (24). pp. 4671-4682.
Patra, Ashis K and Bhowmick, Tuhin and Ramakumar, Suryanarayanarao and Nethaji, Munirathinam and Chakravarty, Akhil R (2008) DNA cleavage in red light promoted by copper(II) complexes of -amino acids and photoactive phenanthroline bases. In: Dalton Transactions (48). pp. 6966-6976.
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Patra, Ashis K and Bhowmick, Tuhin and Ramakumar, Suryanarayanarao and Chakravarty, Akhil R (2007) Metal-Based Netropsin Mimics Showing AT-Selective DNA Binding and DNA Cleavage Activity at Red Light. In: Inorganic Chemistry:Communication, 46 (22). pp. 9030-9032.