Business
‘I’ve Had a Great Reception’: Organic Mattress Shop Opens on South Avenue
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David Spittal spent much of the two years he had earned after founding, building and in 2005 selling his first mattress company reconnecting with family and community. The Putnam Valley, N.Y. resident served on his local school board, coached soccer with his two middle school-aged kids—his daughter is now a junior at Wesleyan University, his son a freshman at Gettysburg College—volunteered as chairman of the board for his local YMCA camp and also sat on a sustainable energy committee. It was while serving in that last role that Spittal paused to consider that most mattresses are made with some combination of polyurethane, polyester fibers and wire springs—creations whose useful life ends at about age eight and then lay in landfills for thousands of years. He began researching the prospect of a comfortable, eco-friendly, far longer-lasting, biodegradable mattress made of entirely organic materials. “I knew that there was a desire, especially with the ‘out-gassing’ of chemicals from polyurethane foam,” Spitall recalled Monday from the warm, welcoming showroom of Healthy Choice Organic Mattress, open since Friday at 21 South Ave.