What is responsible down?

Chances are you’ll be snuggling into a gorgeously soft down duvet come bedtime. One in three people in the Netherlands – about 30% – sleeps under a duvet with a down filling. Warming yet wonderfully light, it’s no wonderdown duvets are so popular. Down is breathable, soft to the touch and adapts to your body: a luxurious material that offers unbeatable comfort. But how responsible is down? This blog provides the answers.

What is down?

We’re glad you asked. The answer is rather simple: down is nothing more than the small feathers located under the tougher exterior feathers of ducks and geese. The down keeps these aquatic birds warm in cold waters and helps them to incubate their eggs. As down feathers have no quill (the rigid shaft of a feather), they’re extremely soft to the touch.

Down comes in two varieties: duck down and goose down. You can tell them apart by the cluster sizes, with goose clusters being larger than duck clusters. That means you need less of them to achieve the same warming and insulation properties. We use both to fill our products, giving you the softest, gentlest experience.

What is recycled down?

There’s a huge demand for down among duvet and pillow manufacturers. But this popularity has a dark side: force-feeding and live-plucking. It goes without saying that Yumeko strongly opposes both practices. That’s why we use only certified down, so that we always know where our down comes from and how it’s processed. But us being us, we take things one step further.

If you purchase a Yumeko ecological down duvet or pillow , you can bring your old down duvet or pillow to us. That’s because about 85% of down is good enough for reuse or recycling. The items that deteriorate fastest are your cotton duvet covers and pillowcases. Our recycled down – a mix of goose and duck down – lets you sleep soundly and with peace of mind.

Responsible down label

As you’ve read, Yumeko duvets contain only certified, responsible down that is DOWNPASS certified. This certification provides confirmation that the down in your duvet is of high quality and responsibly produced, so you can sleep peacefully knowing it has been sourced from happy ducks and geese. Farms must demonstrate their compliance with strict requirements to gain DOWNPASS certification, including:

No live-plucking
No force-feeding
Free access to fresh food and drinking water

Farmers are also audited annually to ensure they’re upholding these standards.

Dutch, German, and Icelandic down

Much of our responsible down is sourced from Dutch duck farms. These farms rear ducks for meat, with down a by-product. They comply with the standards mentioned above as well as strict rules on transporting livestock from farm to abattoir, limiting journey times and providing sufficient space for animals.

Our range includes both duck and goose down. The goose down we use is sourced from Germany and is certified organic. This means that the geese receive organic feed and are free to roam, go outside and swim. Like the other down we use, this down is traceable and is not sourced from live-plucked or force-fed animals – we wouldn’t expect anything less.

Due to a ban on movement and open-air rearing of livestock in Germany, geese whose down is used for our goose down products (down deluxe and organic down) are kept indoors until the ban is lifted.

Our collection also contains a unique variety of down: eiderdown. This comes from wild ducks that nest along the Icelandic coast each year. The ducks pluck their own down to line the nest. The eiderdown is gathered at the end of the breeding season once the mother geese and their goslings have left the nest.

How to care for your down duvet and pillow

Treating your down duvet or pillow responsibly starts with good care . Because the kinder you are to the products you buy, the kinder you are to the planet. Our golden tip? Fluff your duvet or pillow each day. It’s an easy way to redistribute the down clusters and help them to retain more air.

For hygiene reasons, duvets and pillows should be changed every five to six years. When you’re ready to part with your duvet or pillow, simply bring it to us. We’ll recycle the down and reuse it for another of our sleeping beauties.