What to do with a used car seat?

Car seats are one of the most important baby accessories, providing essential safety, security, and convenience for transporting small children. In the course of a little one’s life, there will be a number of seat changes, meaning parents not only need to research the best ones to purchase but will face the challenge in how to dispose of many old seats.

In our house of two young children we have a variety of car seats for our two cars—an infant seat, convertible, and booster. Soon, we will be moving our youngest out of her infant seat and into a rear-facing convertible seat as she is getting too heavy to cart around and will likely exceed the weight limits of the seat. At that time, we will have an infant seat that we will not be using anymore. There are a number of choices to make as to where the old seat will go. Many organizations will not accept them as donations for resale due to liability concerns, and there is no way for the consumer to know the history of the seat when buying it second hand which is why we don’t recommend using used seats from someone you don’t know.

We could give our seat to a pregnant friend or relative (if you have one). They would know the history, condition, and age of the seat, and that it has never been in an accident. However, you should be aware that child seats also have an expiration date. Most are limited to around six years of use from their date of manufacture. You may have used up some if not most of the seat’s “life” and if the friend decides to have other children a few years down the road, the seat would likely be “expired.”. After six years, the plastics could deteriorate and become weakened by many seasons of extreme hot and cold temperatures experience in a car interior. Also, car seat standards are constantly changing, so a newer model would potentially be safer.

Which left me with the option of recycling. Unfortunately, car seat recycling is not as readily available as I’d hoped or as it is with electronics. Colorado’s Children Automotive Safety Foundation  has an extensive program, as well as a number of municipalities in Oregon and Utah. I also found new program in Morristown, New Jersey, which isn’t too far from where I live. Besides having a drop off, they have an annual car seat recycling day and instruct people how to dissemble their own car seats for recycling. When the time comes, you may be able to Google a recycling program in your community.

If there is no organized car seat recycling program in your area, call your municipal waste company to find out if they will recycle or can recommend an organization that will. They may be more willing to help if you volunteer to disassemble the parts yourself.

In the meantime, I’m going to further investigate my options for my old seat, while I won’t miss lugging it around, I’ll be sad to move on from this first stage in my baby’s life.

As the many seats that Consumer Reports tests each year also require disposal following our simulated crash tests, we too will be looking for alternatives to the landfill.

If you find that the only practical alternative is to dispose of the seat as part of the trash be sure to take precautions such as removing the straps and disposing of them separately or cutting them so that the seat can’t be used again, This is especially important for seats in poor condition, that are beyond the expiration date or have been in a crash.

For more information about child car seats, see our buying advice and Ratings.

—Liza Barth 

Car seats are one of the most important baby accessories, providing essential safety, security, and convenience for transporting small children. In the course of a little one’s life, there will be a number of seat changes, meaning parents not only need to research the best ones to purchase but will face the challenge in how to dispose of many old seats.

In our house of two young children we have a variety of car seats for our two cars—an infant seat, convertible, and booster. Soon, we will be moving our youngest out of her infant seat and into a rear-facing convertible seat as she is getting too heavy to cart around and will likely exceed the weight limits of the seat. At that time, we will have an infant seat that we will not be using anymore. There are a number of choices to make as to where the old seat will go. Many organizations will not accept them as donations for resale due to liability concerns, and there is no way for the consumer to know the history of the seat when buying it second hand which is why we don’t recommend using used seats from someone you don’t know.

We could give our seat to a pregnant friend or relative (if you have one). They would know the history, condition, and age of the seat, and that it has never been in an accident. However, you should be aware that child seats also have an expiration date. Most are limited to around six years of use from their date of manufacture. You may have used up some if not most of the seat’s “life” and if the friend decides to have other children a few years down the road, the seat would likely be “expired.”. After six years, the plastics could deteriorate and become weakened by many seasons of extreme hot and cold temperatures experience in a car interior. Also, car seat standards are constantly changing, so a newer model would potentially be safer.

Which left me with the option of recycling. Unfortunately, car seat recycling is not as readily available as I’d hoped or as it is with electronics. Colorado’s Children Automotive Safety Foundation  has an extensive program, as well as a number of municipalities in Oregon and Utah. I also found new program in Morristown, New Jersey, which isn’t too far from where I live. Besides having a drop off, they have an annual car seat recycling day and instruct people how to dissemble their own car seats for recycling. When the time comes, you may be able to Google a recycling program in your community.

If there is no organized car seat recycling program in your area, call your municipal waste company to find out if they will recycle or can recommend an organization that will. They may be more willing to help if you volunteer to disassemble the parts yourself.

In the meantime, I’m going to further investigate my options for my old seat, while I won’t miss lugging it around, I’ll be sad to move on from this first stage in my baby’s life.

As the many seats that Consumer Reports tests each year also require disposal following our simulated crash tests, we too will be looking for alternatives to the landfill.

If you find that the only practical alternative is to dispose of the seat as part of the trash be sure to take precautions such as removing the straps and disposing of them separately or cutting them so that the seat can’t be used again, This is especially important for seats in poor condition, that are beyond the expiration date or have been in a crash.

For more information about child car seats, see our buying advice and Ratings.

—Liza Barth 

Comments

[David Brodbeck]

There's not necessarily anything wrong with landfilling them. For a lot of consumer products recycling is actually more energy intensive and environmentally damaging than just landfilling the old item and manufacturing a new one from scratch.

[buy car online]

I also face the same problem of not knowing what to do with my used car seats. At the moment they are just sitting in my garage.