FOCUS:  Local company is pushing the recycling of old mattresses

By Liz Rennie, special to Charleston Currents  |  In an era of excessive textile waste, one local company is hoping to push the larger corporate players towards better environmental stewardship.

BedShred.com, an initiative of The Charleston Mattress, is committed to keeping old mattresses out of landfills through aggressive recycling techniques. Every discarded mattress is deconstructed and recycled into foam fibers for carpet padding, wooden mulch for community garden projects and the steel coils are melted down for re-sell.  The components are never used in bedding again, but can take on new life in other household forms.

The process leaves only 10 percent of each mattress being discarded as compacted waste. The effort is in collaboration with Nine Lives Recycling in Pamplico, S.C., where the mattresses are stored and materials processed on a 12-acre former agriculture farm.  This happens year-round, and often gains more attention in the spring, when World Earth Day (April 21) highlights projects that are both eco-friendly and smart for the consumer.

In addition to creating more manual labor jobs, this process also makes the landfills safer.  Mattresses are a large and costly problem for landfills. Because many national retailers are now only offering one-sided mattresses and directing consumers to replace them more often, landfills are seeing an influx of mattresses. The compaction rate of a discarded mattress is 400 percent less than regular garbage. A cubic yard of compacted garbage typically weighs between 1,500 pounds and 1,800 pound. A cubic yard of compacted mattresses weighs about pounds and can leave voids in the ground.

Recycling mattresses is a tedious and arduous process, and there have been numerous failed attempts. BedShred is taking the lead on this in South Carolina, and is excited about repurposing these materials instead of adding unnecessary waste to the environment. BedShred is always learning and making new connections for other uses for their components.

“We’re trying to push the industry in the right direction.  Not because it’s more profitable, but because it’s the right thing to do,” says owner K.C. Rennie.  “And if we can blaze the trail and figure out ways to make it more cost effective for other retailers to follow, then we’re happy to take the lead.”

The Charleston Mattress is in a unique position to propel this concept.  With a dedicated small and agile crew, the family-owned and operated company located in Park Circle, knows that without the natural beauty and allure of Charleston, there wouldn’t be nearly as much business.  Many of the visitors who come to stay with family who live here or sleep in the finer hotels and bed and breakfasts around the Holy City often sleep on mattresses made right in our backyard.

The Charleston Mattress regularly fields calls from far-flung places like New York, Florida, California and Pennsylvania from visitors who’ve slept on a Charleston Mattress and now want one shipped to their home state.  Whereas delivery, set-up, haul-away and responsible disposal are all free for customers in Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester counties, shipping outside of the Lowcountry is not free.  However, plenty of clients still opt to pay the cost of getting a Charleston Mattress in their home.

As the BedShred initiative continues to gain traction, consumers are taking notice.  It’s a development that the owners hope will keep landfills emptier of space-hogging mattresses.

Liz Rennie is an owner of the Charleston Mattress Store in North Charleston.

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