We’ve held on to Sofie’s convertible car seat just in case we had a second child. That doesn’t appear to be happening, and now I’m ready to clear out much of the baby stuff that’s hogging precious storage space in our basement. Which brought up the question: What can I do with her old car seat?
Can I Donate It?
A car seat can only be passed on to someone else if it has never been in an accident and has not gone past the manufacturer’s expiration date. Even though Sofie’s 2006 car seat is accident-free and still in good condition, it is too old to safely donate. Most manufacturers list an expiration date on the seat, and if you can’t find one, six years is often considered the limit. Why? The materials degrade over time, especially from the intense ultraviolet light coming through car windows. This compromises their safety benefits. Consult the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for more details on car seat safety.
Look for the expiration date on the back or bottom of the car seat.
Can I Recycle It?
I contacted the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation to find out about recycling options in my state. While we have no drop-off centers, the Recycling Program Manager informed me that if I disassembled the car seat myself, I could then drop off the plastic and fabric components at their facility for recycling. (Those parts are not accepted in the curbside recycling program.)
Fabulous. It took me all of about ten minutes to disassemble the car seat (I was slightly disturbed by this) and to separate it into its plastic, fabric and metal components.
Sofie’s expired car seat before and after disassembly for recycling.
Some areas in the United States offer car seat recycling drop-off centers. Here are a few current ones:
- Minnesota REseat™
- Ohio
- Southern California
- Portland, Oregon
- Seattle, Washington
- Sioux City, Iowa
Note: If your area does not recycle car seats, saw the plastic shell in half (or destroy it some other way) before putting it in the trash. This ensures that no one else can use an unsafe child seat. Some people suggest using permanent marker to write “Trash” and “Unsafe” on the shell.
Why don’t more cities offer recycling centers? It is usually not cost-efficient for them to do so. The return they receive on recycling the components (about 15 cents per pound) is not enough to offset the staffing cost to disassemble and separate car seats. However, some towns will offer one-day community recycling events to which you can bring your car seat (and usually other bulky items as well). Check with your local town office or recycling center to learn more.
Ideally, the responsibility would lie with the car seat manufacturer under something called Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), which requires manufacturers to be engaged in the entire lifecycle of a product, including disposal. EPR is already firmly established in Europe and parts of Asia. This kind of legislation in the U.S. would most definitely get companies to seek more eco-friendly, cradle-to-cradle product designs.
Can I Repurpose It?
If you can’t recycle the car seat and don’t want to trash it, perhaps your kids have some creative ideas for reuse? A chair for dolls or stuffed animals? A “rocket ship” seat? A garden planter? A place for Fluffy to curl up? What are your ideas?
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