4 things to do with your used car seat

Car seats are the most effective way to save lives for little ones while in a motor vehicle. They reduce the risk of death by 71% for children rear facing and 54% for children forward facing.

But what do you do with the car seat after it has served its purpose?

Many car seats have a lifespan that far exceeds the actual time a child may use it, so here are some options on what to do with your car seat when your child no longer needs it: 

• Give the used car seat to a friend or family member

• Donate the car seat

• Recycle the car seat

• Throw the car seat in the trash

Giving a car seat to a friend

If you decide to give the car seat to a friend or family member, you have to be sure about the integrity of the car seat. In other words, is the car seat expires, recalled or ever been involved in a severe car accident? If the answer to any of these is yes, then letting someone else use it is out of the question.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration does recommend that a car seat can be reused after a minor crash if it meets these five criteria:

• The vehicle was able to be driven away from the crash site.

• The vehicle door nearest the car seat was not damaged.

• None of the passengers in the vehicle sustained any injuries in the crash.

• If the vehicle has air bags, the air bags did not deploy during the crash; and

• There is no visible damage to the car seat

Donating a car seat

Donating a car seat does seem like a very reasonable idea as many are not expired and not everyone can afford them. Sadly, many charities don’t agree because it is hard to be sure about the history of the car seat and they aren’t willing to take the risk. However, reach out to your local women's and children's shelters, foster care agencies and other organizations that work with children to see what their guidelines are for accepting donated car seats. 

Car seat recycling

Another option is car seat recycling. Car seat plastic can take anywhere from 100 to 1000 years to decompose. Unfortunately, recycling car seats doesn’t make sense economically because they are made of a mixture of materials – rigid plastic, metal and fabric – strongly bonded together to withstand high impacts. It takes more effort to recycle car seats than what private companies get back in return. For recycling car seats, we usually recommend people drop their seats off at Target when they are doing their trade in events. These events happen about once every quarter and you get a 20% off coupon towards another car seat.

Throw it away

The last option is to throw the car seat in the trash. If this is the route you choose, please make sure to cut the straps and do anything you can so that someone else doesn’t come along and try to take it out of the trash to use. You can separate the fabric from the car seat, break the plastic, anything to make it unusable.