It is estimated that around a third of families living in the UK are impacted by sleep poverty and struggle to afford a bed or get a good night's rest.
Poor quality sleep is known to have detrimental effects on health, such as anxiety, heart disease and diabetes. Research from Buttle UK has revealed that thousands of children don't have their own bed to sleep in, a problem that has only been exacerbated during the cost of living crisis. Helping more people access healthy sleep is one of our 5 pillars of sustainability and below are four impactful partnerships we’ve established in pursuit of this goal.
Cotton Lives On
Over 80% of the UK's textile waste is incinerated or sent to landfill, and we're aware of our contribution to this statistic. So we teamed up with The Cotton Lives On Recycling Programme to develop a new & unique mattress that is filled and covered with recycled cotton & denim.
The CLO Recycling Programme works with brands from the textile industry such as Frugi, Charles Tyrwhitt and Hush to set up systems that collect used cotton clothes from consumers and offcuts from the garment manufacturing process. All the collected fabric is then turned into soft, fluffy recycled cotton pads that make the perfect filling for our mattresses.
We use these recycled denim pads to make our exclusive Naturalmat x Cotton Lives On mattresses, which are then donated to various charities working to tackle sleep poverty such as Single Homeless Project, Refuweegee and Shelter.
“It’s brilliant to be part of a sustainable initiative like this that helps the planet and people experiencing homelessness at the same time. Knowing you have a safe and comfortable bed to sleep in means you can focus on living better and healthier.”
- Vicky Ames, Head of Communications at Single Homeless Project
Through this collaboration we have already given away over 80 of these mattresses, with plans to increase this number every year.
FRC - The world's first mattress washing machine!
One of our many circular initiatives is a recycling service for old mattresses when we deliver a new Naturalmat mattress. Which means we inevitably end up taking some perfectly good mattresses off to the recycling centre, something that didn't sit quite right with us. So we joined forces with the FRC Group, a charity working to end furniture poverty, and designed a service that we're particularly proud of.
Now when our customers return their old mattresses, we sort through them to pick out the ones in a fairly good condition. A select few are then sent off to be thoroughly cleaned & sanitised by the world's first UltraClean mattress washing machine - Mattilda!
The mattresses go through an intensive seven stage cleaning process to ensure they are almost as good as new and ready for a new lease of life. Once cleaned, these mattresses are then sold in FRC's charity shops at low prices or simply donated to individuals or families in need.
This partnership has helped expand our Mattress for Life Initiative™, so now when the time comes our customers can choose to either Refurbish, Recycle or Donate their old Naturalmat mattresses. Together with the FRC group, we are not only reducing unnecessary waste, but also fighting sleep poverty at the same time.
The Lullaby Trust x Little Village
Given our long history of ensuring natural and safe sleep for babies, in 2022 we became official supporting partners of The Lullaby Trust, the UK's leading safer sleep charity.
As a part of this partnership, we are donating 120 of our natural fibre Coco Mat mattresses to London-based baby bank, The Little Village. Our mattresses will be passed on to those in need, helping children and families create a healthy and safe sleep space.
Naturalmat Founder Mark Tremlett with CEO of The Lullaby Trust Jenny Ward (left), and CEO of Little Village, Sophie Livingstone MBE (right).
Every year the charity provides support for over 7,000 babies and young children living in poverty across the capital, and we are proud to have played a small part in their mission.
Exeter Community Initiatives
Naturalmat Founder Peter Tindall with Family Resource Project Manager at Exeter Community Initiatives, Daisy Binnie.
Supporting our local community is one of the 5 pillars of our sustainability strategy, and one that is especially close to our hearts. We've recently partnered with Devon-based charity, Exeter Community Initiatives, and have already donated 3 Naturalmat mattresses to vulnerable families in Exeter.
We will be regularly donating Naturalmat mattresses through this partnership as part of our efforts to alleviate sleep poverty as well as supporting our local Devon community.
These powerful partnerships play a key role in achieving our sustainability goals, particularly our mission to make healthy sleep accessible to all. Through them, we are confident that we are on track to achieve our 2025 target - dedicating 5% of our production capacity to tackling bed poverty.
