Published

1 year ago

December 25, 2024

Alice Rush

Last Updated on September 25, 2024

Ideally, we sleep for 8 hours every night. That’s ~240 hours a month we’re pressing our heads into our pillows.

What you sleep on matters – including what kind of pillow you’re using. Many conventional pillows are made out of synthetic materials, like polyester. This can be problematic for numerous reasons.

6 Best Organic Pillows For a Sound Night's Sleep

Some of the links in this post are affiliate links; for more information please see my disclosure policy.

For starters, polyester doesn’t breath well. This fabric doesn’t regulate body temperature or absorb moisture well, leaving you feeling too hot or too cold.

Additionally, synthetic pillows shed microplastics over time after wear and tear. Plus, there’s little to no recycling options, so it will likely end up in a landfill.

But perhaps most important is our health: Synthetic materials like polyester can contain carcinogens that may cause skin, lung, and heart cancer, as well as respiratory issues. Polyester can also make existing skin problems worse, such as rashes, itching, redness, eczema, and dermatitis.

If you’re looking to switch to organic pillows, made with natural materials, here are some from brands I recommend.

what is the healthiest type of pillow?

The healthiest type of pillow is one that contains little to no synthetic materials. Synthetic materials, like polyester and memory foam pillows, can do something called off-gassing.

This is when newly manufactured products release volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and other harmful chemicals into the air after being unwrapped.

This happens because the products absorb gaseous chemicals during production and then release them in the home. You will often smell it right away, but the fumes can linger for months or even years after the smell reduces.

Ethylene glycol is the chemical found in polyester pillows that causes them to off-gas. Memory foam is just another name for polyurethane (PU), which can release volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

When you sleep on these pillows, you can inhale these chemicals. They can also be absorbed through the skin and can cause a multitude of problems, such as skin and eye irritation, damage to the nervous system and kidneys and respiratory irritation.

On top of this, polyester is also attractive to dust mites, as there are many places the bugs can hide. Their feces can worsen allergy symptoms.

Instead, the healthiest pillow is one made from organic, natural materials, like cotton and natural latex. Organic cotton is pesticide-free and natural latex inhibits growth of mold or mildew all while regulating heat and circulating air.

are organic pillows worth it?

Yes, organic pillows are worth it for your health, wallet and the environment. That’s because organic pillows are made from high-quality ingredients that won’t degrade as quickly as synthetic materials.

Several brands also offer various different styles of organic pillows to fit your needs. For example, Avocado Mattress (listed below) offers four different styles of pillow and even has a pillow-finder quiz to help you make the best choice based on your preferences and needs.

So, you will not only be getting higher quality ingredients, but better designs and support to meet your needs.

Upfront organic pillows may be pricier, but over time they will pay for themselves because they are designed to last.

what makes a pillow organic?

What makes a pillow organic is if it’s made using certified organic materials. Organic pillows tend to be made using natural materials for both the shell and the filling.

The fill can be shredded latex, cotton, wool, silk, kapok fibers, down, feathers (from geese or ducks), or buckwheat hulls. Not all these options are vegan, so make sure to inspect the materials used carefully before making your selection. Many brands create organic vegan pillows as well.

gzw approved organic pillows

Here are some brands that sell organic pillows and get the Going Zero Waste seal of approval. Most of these brands also sell sustainable bedding options like mattresses and/or sheets. Many offer vegan options.

I’ve gone ahead and highlighted some key features of each brand, but it isn’t an exhaustive list. Be sure to check out their websites for more information.

1. avocado mattress

4 main styles of pillows + mini and toddler pillows
GOLS Certified organic latex & cotton
GOTS Certified organic kapok fill
Adjustable fill for extra support and comfort
Vegan options
B Corp certified

2. coyuchi

Organic latex + down pillow inserts
GOLS Certified organic Dunlop latex
GOTS Certified organic cotton shell
1% of every order donated to nonprofit you choose
Comes in a reusable cloth bag
Vegan options
Option to shop pre-loved
Take-back program

3. birch

Organic pillows in standard + king size
GOTS + eco-INSTITUT certified, featuring Fair Trade cotton covers
Fill is organic, cruelty-free wool + natural latex
Greenguard GOLD certification
No polyurethane-based foams
100 night trial for all products
1 year warranty

4. naturepedic

7 main kinds of pillows + kid pillows
Made with certified organic cotton, GOTS-approved latex, + plant-based PLA batting
Their entire factory is GOTS certified organic
Greenguard + Made Safe Certified
Vegan options
100 night trial
1 year warranty

5. sol organic

Organic down pillow
Made with 100% organic certified cotton shell + responsibly sourced down
Choose between soft, medium, + firm
Standard + king size options

6. naturalmat

8 main styles of pillows
UK-based, handmade in their Devon workshop
Made from OEKO TEX 100 certified 100% cotton cambric cover
Filled with organic wool or feathers + down (responsibly sourced without any harm to living animals)
Packaged in a reusable cotton drawstring bag

Which of these organic pillows would you like to try? Let me know in the comments!

The post 6 Best Organic Pillows For a Sound Night’s Sleep appeared first on Going Zero Waste.

6 Best Organic Pillows For a Sound Night’s Sleep

Green Living

Earth911 Inspiration: Be True to the Earth — Edward Abbey

Published

3 days ago

May 22, 2026

Alice Rush

This week’s quote is from American novelist and pioneering environmentalist Edward Abbey: “I am not an atheist but an earthiest. Be true to the earth.”

Earth911 inspirations. Post them, share your desire to help people think of the planet first, every day. Click the poster to get a larger image.

This poster was originally published on January 31, 2020.

The post Earth911 Inspiration: Be True to the Earth — Edward Abbey appeared first on Earth911.

https://earth911.com/inspire/earth911-inspiration-be-true-to-the-earth-edward-abbey/

Green Living

10 Books to Counter Consumerism

Published

5 days ago

May 20, 2026

Alice Rush

We are constantly bombarded by messages that tell us we need more stuff to be happy. The average American household contains around 300,000 items. The average home size has roughly tripled since the 1950s, and we still rent self-storage units by the millions to hold the overflow.

If you are rethinking your relationship to consumer culture – whether by choice or necessity – we’ve rounded up a list of books to make breaking up with consumerism and easier to understand which of our purchases are really necessary.

(Amazon links are provided for convenience. Your local library and independent bookstore are excellent first stops.)

Empire of Things

by Frank Trentmann

Trentmann’s sweeping 2016 history follows material culture from late Ming China and Renaissance Italy through to today’s global supply chains. He shows that consumerism is not a recent American export but a centuries-long international phenomenon, one that has reshaped households, cities, and the planet.

Empire of Things is dense but never preachy, and it gives readers the long view needed to understand what we are actually pushing back against.

No Logo – 10th Anniversary Edition

by Naomi Klein

No Logo was a movement manifesto when it appeared in 1999, and its dissection of branding, sweatshop labor, and corporate cultural takeover reads as prescient now that nearly every screen on earth is an ad surface. To take the next step, pair this read with Klein’s more recent argument about capitalism and ecological collapse, How To Change Everything.

The Conscious Closet

by Elizabeth L. Cline

Cline first exposed the human and environmental costs of fast fashion in Overdressed (2012). The Conscious Closet is the practical follow-up: how to clean out, repair, swap, and rebuild a wardrobe without funding the industry that produces an estimated 92 million tons of textile waste each year. It is the most actionable book on this list for anyone with a closet.

The Myths of Happiness

by Sonja Lyubomirsky

Psychology professor Sonja Lyubomirsky brings the receipts. In The Myths of Happiness, she walks through decades of research showing that material milestones — the raise, the upgrade, the bigger house — produce short bursts of satisfaction that fade quickly. What actually sustains wellbeing is rarely for sale. A clarifying read for anyone tempted to outshop their way to contentment.

How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy

by Jenny Odell

Waste is coming for our minds, too. Odell argues that our scarcest resource is attention — and that the platforms we use have turned it into the raw material of a trillion-dollar industry. How to Do Nothing is not a digital-detox manual; it is a case for reclaiming attention as a political act, with consequences for everything from bird-watching to civic life. More relevant in 2026 than when it was published in 2019.

Less Is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World

by Jason Hickel

Economic anthropologist Jason Hickel makes the case that endless GDP growth is incompatible with a livable planet, and that “green growth” is mostly a marketing exercise. Less Is More (2020) traces 500 years of capitalism and lays out what a degrowth economy could actually look like — one organized around human and ecological flourishing rather than perpetual expansion. The book has helped move degrowth from the margins of academia into the mainstream of the climate debate.

The Day the World Stops Shopping

by J.B. MacKinnon

Journalist J.B. MacKinnon designed The Day the World Stops Shopping (2021) as a thought experiment — what would happen if global consumption dropped by 25%? — and then watched the pandemic run a version of the experiment in real time. He travels from Namibian hunter-gatherer communities to American big-box retail, talking to economists, ecologists, and CEOs. The result is one of the most readable accounts of why we shop, why we cannot easily stop, and what we would gain if we did.

Consumed: The Need for Collective Change

by Aja Barber

Writer and consultant Aja Barber connects fashion, colonialism, and climate in Consumed (2021), a debut that has become a touchstone for the ethical fashion conversation. Where Cline writes as a practitioner, Barber writes as a systems critic, tracing the textile trade’s roots in slavery and racial inequality and asking readers to confront why we fill emotional gaps with purchases. Pointed, generous, and built to be read in two sittings.

Wasteland: The Secret World of Waste and the Urgent Search for a Cleaner Future

by Oliver Franklin-Wallis

If consumerism is the input, waste is the output we work hardest not to see. Award-winning journalist Oliver Franklin-Wallis follows that output across continents in Wasteland (2023) — from New Delhi’s landfills and Ghana’s secondhand clothing markets to nuclear storage sites and the corporate origins of curbside recycling. Named a Best Book of 2023 by The New Yorker, The Guardian, and Kirkus, it is essential reading for anyone who has ever wondered where “away” actually goes.

Fixation: How to Have Stuff Without Breaking the Planet

by Sandra Goldmark

Sandra Goldmark runs a pop-up repair shop in New York and serves as director of sustainability at Barnard College. Fixation (2020) is her plainspoken case for getting things fixed instead of replaced, and for building a circular economy where good design, reuse, and repair are the default. Her five-rule formula — borrowed in spirit from Michael Pollan — is the most quotable advice on this list: “Have good stuff. Not too much. Mostly reclaimed. Care for it. Pass it on.”

What You Can Do

Reading is a start, not a finish. A few next steps:

Start at the library. Most of these titles are available through WorldCat or your local branch. Borrowing keeps a book in circulation and out of a landfill.
Audit one category of stuff before adding to it. Pick clothes, kitchenware, or electronics. Inventory what you already own before the next purchase. Most of us own more than we remember.
Find a repair option in your community. Take the time to locate repair, reuse, and donation outlets near you before tossing anything broken.
Support right-to-repair policy. Several U.S. states have passed right-to-repair laws since 2023; the rest are weighing them. Individual purchasing choices matter more when manufacturers are required to make repair possible.
Read one of these books and talk about it. Anti-consumption is harder alone. Book clubs, mutual-aid groups, and faith communities have all become surprising hubs for this work.

Editor’s Note: Originally authored by Gemma Alexander on June 18, 2020, this article was updated in May 2026.

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https://earth911.com/inspire/10-books-to-counter-consumerism/

Green Living

Best of Sustainability In Your Ear: EarthX CEO Peter Simek on Cultivating Bipartisan Climate Strategies

Published

5 days ago

May 20, 2026

Alice Rush

Subscribe to receive transcripts by email. Read along with this episode.

For 15 years, the Dallas-based climate conference the EarthX conference has created space where fossil fuel executives and environmental activists, Republican appropriations chairs and Democratic climate hawks, find common ground. The organization targets three core stakeholders: the corporate world, policymakers, and investors seeking startups where environmental solutions are baked into the bottom line. Peter Simek, EarthX’s CEO, explains how reframing climate action around shared values—stewardship, economic opportunity, and love of the land—unlocks support that crisis messaging alone cannot reach.

The doom story doesn’t sell, Simek explained. “We’re not motivated as a species by doomsday language. It puts people in fight-or-flight mode.” He points out how climate became an identity issue, tangled up in culture-war debates over hamburgers and gas-powered trucks, when the real conversation should center on clean air, clean water, and protecting the places we love. “The EPA and the Clean Air and Clean Water Act were passed during the Nixon administration,” he notes. “There are ways to message this that appeals across lines.”

Peter Simek, CEO of EarthX, is our guest on *Sustainability In Your Ear*.

Simek bets heavily on bottom-up action as EarthX works to build bridges. States, cities, and private capital often move faster than federal mandates, he argues, and they’re harder to reverse with a single executive order. Texas leads the nation in renewable energy deployment because wind and solar make bottom-line sense. “Even as there’s a policy turn against it, there’s still the driving reality that solar and wind are viable energy sources,” he says. A new event in 2026, the EarthX Institute, will focus on two policy priorities: nuclear energy, where bipartisan consensus is growing, and urban biodiversity.

Whether conversations at forums like EarthX translate into policy velocity that matches the pace of climate impacts remains to be seen. Simek says he stays focused on tracking downstream results, specifically the investments funded, the coalitions built, and the policies incubated from the local level up. “It’s about finding those ways in which there’s common sense, common ground, common values,” he says. “Elements to talking about nature and the environment that no one can really disagree with.”

Learn more about EarthX and its upcoming April 2026 conference at earthx.org.