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.