What to do, if no GOLS seller is available?

Hello everyone. Writing from Australia.

This tells me that none of the mattress retailers have GOLS certification, but still I see many to be advertising the label. On inspection, in all cases, it turns out that certifications are from handful of suppliers in Sri Lanka which are in this list. In few cases, they provide transaction certificate as well to build additional trust.

So what are my options here to reliably get an authentic organic latex in a mattress?

adamz:

GOLS is meant to certify producers of componentry (in this case, sheets of foam rubber latex) and manufacturers of products (in this case, mattresses containing form rubber latex), not mattress retailers, although in some cases, especially with online products, the manufacturer of a GOLS and/or GOTS certified completed mattress may also be the actual retailer of that product if it’s only sold by that manufacturer through their own online channel.

If a manufacturer of a product uses GOLS certified latex and states as such, then you could always go to the Control Union site and double check that the latex foam producer still has their GOLS certification in good standing. You could also do the same if the completed mattress has a GOLS and/or GOTS certification.

As a consumer, I can understand being a bit skeptical about componentry used in a mattress, but my default stance wouldn’t tend to be cynical. Most mattress companies are honest with the componentry contained within their products, especially if using organic certified claims, as it’s so easy to verify if their claims are correct and certification agencies have tools in place to legally protect these certifications. I would tend to be cautious if there were previous examples of a retailer or manufacturer being found to be less than honest. If a retailer makes the claim that mattress A from company B uses GOLS certified latex from manufacturer C, and these certifications are current and publicly stated/promoted by all parties involved, then I would tend to trust that information as being accurate, unless there was compelling contradictory information to refute those claims. The reputation of all parties involved comes into play here as well. And of course one’s own personal level of trust, and how certain something needs to be for one to believe that it is accurate, which for some people can stray quite a bit from what the general population / reasonable people would consider as valid.

Yeah, so in case of no direct GOLS certified retailer available, I have gone for a retailer which could answer all my questions and proved to be as transparent as I asked for. For me that became a benchmark of reasonable trust.

Good on ya!