Say No to the Landfill: 3 Places You Can Recycle Your Used Car Seats

Car seats may be a parenting essential, but did you know they are only good for so long? That's right, car seats have an expiration date that can vary by style and by brand, which means that each car seat you see on the market has a limited shelf life. When you throw into the fact that some people need to replace car seats for a variety of reasons — including when your child grows out of it, damage, and car accidents — there are a lot of reasons to toss your old seat.

However, that big, bulky plastic that keeps little ones safe can also be hard to dispose of properly, which is why it's important to try and recycle your seat whenever possible.

Where can you recycle car seats? Fortunately, a lot of places! Find out more below.

According to the popular car seat website Safe Ride 4 Kids, there are a few viable options when it comes to recycling your old car seats. Number one on the list involves dismantling the car seat and recycling the parts. This means separating the various materials — including the cloth, foam, and plastic — and then getting those materials to their specific recycling centers or community programs.

Safe Ride 4 Kids says that there may be local companies that will reuse certain parts of the seats, like the cloth, and upcycle them to make other items for parents and kids. Or, you may need to find a location that takes the type of plastic that your child's seat is made from, which will allow you to drop that part of the seat off to be processed with other similar items.

The website goes on to note that your state's Department of Transportation (DOT) may also have a recycling program. For example, Colorado's DOT has several different drop-off sites around the state that allow people to bring their used seats in to be recycled.

In Pennsylvania, the DOT hosts events where people can come out to certain locations a few times a year to dispose of their car seats in a safe and eco-friendly manner.

Want to make a few bucks from your old seat? A trade-in event may be your answer. Retailers like Walmart and Target will offer shoppers incentives to bring their car seats in as part of their exchange program, which may include cash back, store credit, or other options, several times a year.

These programs are so popular that some families will collect used car seats from their local parenting groups and stockpile them for the event.

While there are plenty of good options for getting rid of your old car seat, the one thing that manufacturers don't recommend is setting your used seat out on the curb for trash pickup as is. Instead, if you're going to put your seat out for the trash, it's recommended that you slash the harness before doing so in order to prevent someone from coming along and picking it up to use for their child.

That's because using car seats that are beyond their expiration date, or that have possibly been damaged in an accident, can have devastating consequences for your family.

So, instead of tossing your seat to the curb, consider one of the above recycling options. Not only is it better for the children who could somehow end up using an expired seat, it's also better for the environment they're going to be growing up in.