How do you choose your beanbag filling? One of the most important decisions you have to make in choosing the right filling for your cover. Should you go for a bean bag filling or a foam filling? If comfort, support and structure is a priority – then the decision is a no-brainer. Choose polystyrene bead bean bag filling.
To be clear . . .
Beanbag covers can use either of the two fillings, polystyrene or foam pieces or solids. The Australian designers of Ambient Lounge’s bean bag fillings prefer high quality polystyrene for the following reasons:
They are small and dense.
We have improved the fillings themselves (from the mass market variety) to make them smaller and denser. This way, they don’t lose their form or bouncy effect very quickly. Have you noticed that Kmart, Target or Big W filling can sometimes sag quickly? The beads are larger and less dense, thats why. It’s actually more costly to keep topping up than buying good quality beads from the beginning.
Foam is even more spongy and can also compress. Foam such as polyurethane, that is sold into shredded form, may lose its comfort much faster.
Micro polystyrene beads are actually a lot easier to deal with.
This is especially true if you go for Ambient Lounge bead fillings that already come with a funnel-based system. It eliminates scattered beads on the floor and speeds up the filling process to less than a minute. That is not a technology you can use or apply with the foam filling, particularly when it’s already shredded. Before you know it, the entire area gets a little messy and, worse, little very small babies, animals or kids may fancy them and eat the foam! Thats dangerous.
You get more comfort and satisfaction in a bead filling than a foam filling.
To be fair, both foam and Polystyrene offer a degree of comfort when you’re sitting or lying down. But the latter provides more of it. This is because bean bag fillings don’t immediately sag. They beads follow the shape of the body, but when you stand up, they bounce back to the sofa shape. Meanwhile, the foam fillings can be so soft that they will stay compressed and make you feel uneasy and close to ht floor (if not sitting on the floor). You may even have some trouble standing up.
There are better regulations with bead fillings than foam fillings.
Some countries like Australia have created strict laws with regard to the design and use of small Polystyrene fillings in beanbags. These include adding a tight locking system that prevents any child from opening, crawling, or ingesting the beads. These laws only enhance the standards in the manufacture and sales of bead fillings in the market.
Isn’t Polystyrene Bad for the Environment?
Some people have expressed concerns over the use of polystyrene in beanbags—and rightfully so. Polystyrene, as a by-product of petroleum, doesn’t decay, only adding more garbage into the landfill and increasing land pollution. Worse, the manufacture of such fillings may include CFCs that have been proven to damage the ozone layer and increase global warming.
Over the last few years, though, more manufacturers have learned to become green. For instance, instead of CFCs, they make use of carbon dioxide as a blowing agent. Organizations that oversee the proper disposal of the polystyrene beads are also in place and are teaching users how to recycle them.
Ambient Lounge is working on more green solutions for bean bag filling in Australia.
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