You’re cleaning out your garage and find an old child car seat under a pile of your kids’ other stuff. The seat is gross and likely expired (most car seats are unsafe to use after six years from the date of manufacture). Just toss it on the curb on trash day with all the other junk you’re getting rid of, right? Not so fast!
First, check with a local Babies R Us store and see when they will be doing their next trade-in event. They do these periodically and will accept any baby gear item (regardless of condition) and give you a 20% discount on any one item you buy from them in return. All car seats turned in at these events are recycled, never resold, so this is definitely worth waiting for if you can. If for whatever reason that won’t work for you, read on to see the right way to throw away your car seat.
