How to Dispose of Used Baby Car Seat
Concluding Jan, I needed to get rid of two car seats that my girls had outgrown. Safety experts caution against giving them abroad unless they're in about-perfect condition (most charities won't fifty-fifty take them), and finding recycling programs specific to car seats is rare. What could I practice to proceed the seats from going directly to a landfill?
At a loss for better options, my husband and I tore our machine seats apart, every bit best we could, and put the exoskeleton-like shells out with the recycling numberless on the adjourn, hoping for the best. Side by side recycling mean solar day, the truck didn't option upward the shells, and I spent a week anxiously imagining them decomposing correct there on the sidewalk, weathering a millennium of snowstorms and boiling New York Urban center heat waves. Although the seats were somewhen picked up, I couldn't milk shake my guilt. I wondered if the seats were really recycled, and if I should have tried harder to laissez passer them on.
The problem of getting rid of large, bulky gear (or other similar abode goods) isn't unique to car seats. Only because that almost kids will become through iii before they plough xi, and the prophylactic bug involved with handing them down, car seats pose a pretty significant disposal issue. After seeking the advice of a child-rider safety good, a specialty recycler, and my local department of sanitation, I determined the best practices for altruistic and recycling a seat. But nigh of them require more work than you might expect.
Pass it on ... but merely if you tin can vouch for its condition
Yous tin can give away or sell a used seat, simply information technology better be in near-perfect condition. The next owners should be able to talk with you, ideally in person, about the seat's history. Lorrie Walker, training director and technical counselor for the Buckle Up Programme at Safety Kids Worldwide (which certifies Child Passenger Safety technicians), told me the seat should meet the following criteria:
It should be inside the expiration date. Car seats have expiration dates, which might make some parents suspicious that manufacturers are just trying to make u.s. buy more stuff. But like anything, the components of the seats can article of clothing out over time. "Those expiration dates are in that location for a expert reason," Jose Ucles, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Transportation, told me in an email. "An expiration date tells you lot about the integrity of the seat'southward components. Webbing, plastic, foam, buckles, etc., experience article of clothing and tear over fourth dimension that could weaken their ability to provide optimal crash protection." Infant seats (our favorite is the Chicco Keyfit xxx) usually expire five to half-dozen years subsequently the industry date. Convertible seats (we recommend Britax'south Marathon ClickTight) expire after about 10 years. Look for the date in the transmission or on the seat.
It should exist from the original owner and never accept been in a moderate to serious crash. Simply the original owner volition know the full history of the seat and tin vouch that it's never been in an accident. "Once a motorcar seat's been in a crash, much like a bike helmet or a motorcycle helmet, it'southward no adept," said Walker. According to the National Highway Traffic Prophylactic Administration (NHTSA), a fender bough might be okay, though.
Information technology should not have any missing parts, or parts that you lot've jerry-rigged. Walker told me a nightmare story about a child who was ejected from a machine seat that the parents had bought at a thousand sale. Just after the crash did they find the prior owners had replaced a steel bar that was supposed to hold the car seat harness straps in place with a soft, straw-like metal rod that couldn't support the weight of the child.
The seat shouldn't be nether recall. And if it was recalled, make sure it was stock-still according to the manufacturer's instructions. "Many of the think items are generally fixable at home, they're not difficult to do," said Walker.
Ideally, the safety manual and registration card should be included, though if yous've lost the original manual nigh car seat manufacturers have PDF versions online. Walker recommends the new owners too register the seat to receive updates on recalls, which can be done with the registration card (if you yet have it) or through the NHTSA.
Checking all the boxes on this list can be a tall order for the average parent. "Very few people want that responsibility," said Walker.
Wait for buyback programs
Target and other stores periodically host events where yous can bring in your quondam seat and receive a coupon toward your next purchase. What happens to the seats afterward the trade-in depends on the retailer and which disposal company it has partnered with. Some partners, like TerraCycle, volition recycle the unabridged seat (including the foam and cloth covers), others recycle only the nigh valuable materials (unremarkably the metal and some of the plastic). Some retailers simply send them to a landfill.
Target ran two buyback programs in 2017 where it partnered with TerraCycle, a visitor that specializes in hard-to-recycle items. A rep from Target told me the company recycled nearly eighty,000 seats, equaling over one meg pounds, during i event alone. This April 22 through May 5, Target will host its first trade-in program of 2018, this time partnered with a company called Waste Management. Bring in your unwanted seat and you'll get a coupon for 20 per centum off a new car seat or stroller.
Recycle information technology—if y'all can!
Your side by side best pick is to recycle your seat through your municipality (telephone call to see if it takes them) or i of the rare motorcar seat recycling programs. Car seats are challenging to recycle considering they're made of so many materials, which need to be separated for individual waste matter streams. Almost programs volition recycle merely the metal and some of the plastic parts of the frame, which have more value than the foam and fabric covers.
"The only way I come across that machine seats would be recycled by a municipality is if they're going to cherry pick the parts of the car seat that are valuable or have whatsoever value to them once they're separated," said Brett Stevens, vice president of material sales and procurement at TerraCycle. Corporate subsidies allow TerraCycle to recycle less-profitable parts. For example, Target paid TerraCycle to recycle the motorcar seats from its ii merchandise-in programs in 2017. TerraCycle also partners with a range of companies for costless recycling programs for packaging, like snack numberless and toothpaste tubes. "That's why we're able to exist," said Stevens, "considering of the generous sponsorship of these companies."
If yous determine to recycle through your municipality, remove the cover and cutting off the straps, harnesses, and buckles. Basically, go far unusable. If the seat isn't fit for altruistic, y'all don't want another family nabbing information technology.
Before putting my daughters' seats on the curb, I followed advice I'd read on the Internet and broke the shells autonomously as much as possible. In practise, I found this to be backbreaking work that about people probably won't hassle with. It took my husband and me a curse-inducing 60 minutes with an electric drill, screwdriver, and hammer to remove a fraction of the metal pieces embedded in the plastic. I felt better about our weak performance afterward I talked to Walker: "I've been at [disposal] events through the years where somebody has piled the auto seats in a really big heap so they accept an earth mover and effort and crush them...sometimes it takes this earth mover going over it three or iv times to interruption the molds on these motorcar seats."
Throw information technology out ... but do information technology correct!
If yous practise demand to send the machine seat to a landfill, take it apart first (again, y'all don't desire a family mistaking information technology for a giveaway and using it). As you would if recycling the shell, cut off all the straps, buckles, and harnesses. "That way you've completely rendered the carseat unable to exist used," Walker said. She recommends putting the shell in i dark garbage handbag, and the straps and cover in another.
Equally for my daughters' automobile seats, I tried to investigate their fate by emailing the NYC Department of Sanitation'southward press office. Hypothetically, I asked, If I put the stripped car seat shells out with the residual of my recycling, would they be recycled? I quickly got a response from Vito Turso, a deputy commissioner at the department: "We take all rigid plastics for recycling, so I remember yous can say aye."
Well, probably yes and no.
Further reading
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The Best Infant Motorcar Seat
past Rebecca Gale
After 50 hours of research and crash-testing, nosotros found that the
Chicco KeyFit xxx
is the best babe automobile seat for nigh families.
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How to Go Rid of Lice
past Shannon Palus
Depending on which removal method you choose, yous tin save time or money—but not both—when treating a instance of caput lice.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/blog/get-rid-used-car-seat/
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