How to Get Rid of a Used Car Seat

Last January, I needed to get rid of two car seats that my girls had outgrown. Safety experts caution against giving them away unless they’re in near-perfect condition (most charities won’t even take them), and finding recycling programs specific to car seats is rare. What could I do to keep the seats from going straight to a landfill?

At a loss for better options, my husband and I tore our car seats apart, as best we could, and put the exoskeleton-like shells out with the recycling bags on the curb, hoping for the best. Next recycling day, the truck didn’t pick up the shells, and I spent a week anxiously imagining them decomposing right there on the sidewalk, weathering a millennium of snowstorms and humid New York City heat waves. Although the seats were eventually picked up, I couldn’t shake my guilt. I wondered if the seats were really recycled, and if I should have tried harder to pass them on.

The problem of getting rid of big, bulky gear (or other similar home goods) isn’t unique to car seats. But considering that most kids will go through three before they turn 11, and the safety issues involved with handing them down, car seats pose a pretty significant disposal issue. After seeking the advice of a child-passenger safety expert, a specialty recycler, and my local department of sanitation, I determined the best practices for donating and recycling a seat. But most of them require more work than you might expect.

Pass it on ... but only if you can vouch for its condition

You can give away or sell a used seat, but it 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 manager and technical advisor for the Buckle Up Program at Safe Kids Worldwide (which certifies Child Passenger Safety technicians), told me the seat should meet the following criteria:

It should be within the expiration date. Car seats have expiration dates, which might make some parents suspicious that manufacturers are just trying to make us buy more stuff. But like anything, the components of the seats can wear out over time. “Those expiration dates are there for a good reason,” Jose Ucles, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Transportation, told me in an email. “An expiration date tells you about the integrity of the seat’s components. Webbing, plastic, foam, buckles, etc., experience wear and tear over time that could weaken their ability to provide optimal crash protection.” Infant seats (our favorite is the Chicco Keyfit 30) usually expire five to six years after the manufacture date. Convertible seats (we recommend Britax’s Marathon ClickTight) expire after about 10 years. Look for the date in the manual or on the seat.

It should be from the original owner and never have been in a moderate to serious crash. Only the original owner will know the full history of the seat and can vouch that it’s never been in an accident. “Once a car seat’s been in a crash, much like a bike helmet or a motorcycle helmet, it’s no good,” said Walker. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), a fender bender might be okay, though.

It should not have any missing parts, or parts that you’ve jerry-rigged. Walker told me a nightmare story about a child who was ejected from a car seat that the parents had bought at a yard sale. Only after the crash did they discover 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 under recall. And if it was recalled, make sure it was fixed according to the manufacturer’s instructions. “Many of the recall 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 you’ve lost the original manual most car seat manufacturers have PDF versions online. Walker recommends the new owners also register the seat to receive updates on recalls, which can be done with the registration card (if you still 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.

Look for buyback programs

Target and other stores periodically host events where you can bring in your old seat and receive a coupon toward your next purchase. What happens to the seats after the trade-in depends on the retailer and which disposal company it has partnered with. Some partners, like TerraCycle, will recycle the entire seat (including the foam and fabric covers), others recycle only the most valuable materials (usually the metal and some of the plastic). Some retailers just send them to a landfill.

Target ran two buyback programs in 2017 where it partnered with TerraCycle, a company that specializes in hard-to-recycle items. A rep from Target told me the company recycled nearly 80,000 seats, equaling over one million pounds, during one 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 percent off a new car seat or stroller.

Recycle it—if you can!

Your next best option is to recycle your seat through your municipality (call to see if it takes them) or one of the rare car seat recycling programs. Car seats are challenging to recycle because they’re made of so many materials, which need to be separated for individual waste streams. Most programs will recycle only 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 see that car 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 any 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 instance, Target paid TerraCycle to recycle the car seats from its two trade-in programs in 2017. TerraCycle also partners with a range of companies for free recycling programs for packaging, like snack bags and toothpaste tubes. “That’s why we’re able to exist,” said Stevens, “because of the generous sponsorship of these companies.”

If you decide to recycle through your municipality, remove the cover and cut off the straps, harnesses, and buckles. Basically, make it unusable. If the seat isn’t fit for donating, you don’t want another family nabbing it.

Before putting my daughters’ seats on the curb, I followed advice I’d read on the Internet and broke the shells apart as much as possible. In practice, I found this to be backbreaking work that most people probably won’t hassle with. It took my husband and me a curse-inducing hour 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 after I talked to Walker: “I’ve been at [disposal] events through the years where somebody has piled the car seats in a really big heap and then they take an earth mover and try and crush them...sometimes it takes this earth mover going over it three or four times to break the molds on these car seats.”

Throw it out ... but do it right!

If you do need to send the car seat to a landfill, take it apart first (again, you don’t want a family mistaking it 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 be used,” Walker said. She recommends putting the shell in one dark garbage bag, and the straps and cover in another.

As for my daughters’ car seats, I tried to investigate their fate by emailing the NYC Department of Sanitation’s press office. Hypothetically, I asked, If I put the stripped car seat shells out with the rest of my recycling, would they be recycled? I quickly got a response from Vito Turso, a deputy commissioner at the department: “We accept all rigid plastics for recycling, so I think you can say yes.”

Well, probably yes and no.