What to Do with 5 Year Old Infant Carrier/car Seat?

go to www.freecycle.org and join the group and all you do is post you offer and say "porch pick up" and someone will come that needs it and take it! I use it and have gotten some really good things that I needed that are close for me to drive to and pick up!

S.

You could put it up on craigslist under the free section or go to freecycle.com and post it. At the same time I do believe the car seat comission says it should not be used after 5 years.

Give it to a local Salvation Army Srote or Center or a shelter that houses families

Hi, B.!
The vast majority of car seats are only good for 6 YEARS from the DOM (date of manufacture). In other words, they EXPIRE 6 yrs from that date & are unsafe to use.

You could look for the DOM on your carseat (every manufacture is different, but it will always be somewhere on the shell of the seat (the plastic "body").

If there is still any life left on it, you could post it on Craigs List or Freecycle BUT you should list the DOM & warn the person that it's nearing the end of it's life.

Once a carseat is expired, you can save the cover if you want (to sell or post on Craigslist, etc...) but the straps of the seat should be cut & the carseat should be "vandalized" by marker/spray paint to make it clear that it's expired & put in a black trash bag (to prevent trash pickers from thinking it's a great "steal" & re-using it). I've even heard some people take a chainsaw to it & take their frustrations of parenthood out on it! LOL

Good luck!

I agree it should be destroyed if it is more than 5 years old. There are lots of places for low-income moms to get free NEW car seats that are safer. Cut the straps, remove the padding, and put it in the trash.

Hi B., Why don't you donate it to the Battered Women's shelter? Call any local hospital and ask if they accept donations for them. Battered Woman's shelters need everything from clothes for women and children to toys etc. Remember most women go there with nothing. Best wishes.

you can always join freecycle and give it away to someone else to use.

B.,
After they have passed so many years no one will take it. There should be a date on the back somewhere that tells you. Not to many places take that sort of stuff. I was not even able to get rid of a safety gate at goodwill. I had to throw away our last car seats. it is all safety issues because no one knows if the seats have been involved in an accident. Which then they should be replaced.
L.

Hi, B.:
Woment's shelters take donations.

Whatever area in live in, look up the shelter nearby.
Thanks for asking. D.

If you decide to trash it, RECYCLE it-it's a lot of plastic. Mine are like new after a few years, and I would definitely pass mine on to friends or places that would take them OR recycle them. Good question, I need to get rid of 3 soon, so I'll be looking at your responses!

Depending on where you live, there are organizations and shelters that will take them. If you live in the Mechanicsburg area, I can give you some contacts.
B.

Hi B.,

Collection groups that do not RESELL (i.e. Salvation Army wouldn't work) can collect and redistribute your "safety" stuff under the "Good Samaritan" clause. I found one in my area (Glade Run Presbyterian outreach, Rt. 8, North of Pitt) that I can share with you if you are in the region. They took old window blinds, regular and nursing bras for me and told me they will gladly take car seats when the time comes.

If I were you, I'd just run a quick search to make sure no recalls have happened on it (more for peace of my own mind than anything else).

Email me if you want the number! Good luck!

I didn't read any responses, but I'd recommend throwing the infant car seat away. They expire after 5 - 6 yrs (new ones actually have an expiration date on them). The plastic breaks down and it's not safe in the event of an accident. What I was told was to compare it to the plastics you leave out all summer and winter. It gets very brittle. I was told to cut the straps (so no one will stop and pick it up) and put it down for the trash collection. I know it seems a shame to throw these things away, but I've actually done it with a very expensive Britax car seat, as well as some other seats in otherwise great condition (a great infant carrier being one of them... but there were 9 yrs between the two kids and I heard about the expiration issue and was too nervous about using it). It kills you to know you are throwing away something worth several hundred dollars; but I think my child's life is worth it, and so is the child of anyone who would take the expired car seat. I don't know, maybe that is an over-reaction. Who knows how dangerous they really are after they expire.

That being said, there are others that think any car seat is better than none and they donate theirs. Yes, most womens' shelters take donations of baby items. I just couldn't do that in good conscience knowing that it might not be safe. A friend here called somewhere, I'm not sure where, and they told her to go ahead and sell hers at her yard sale. They used the 'An old seat is better than no seat' line on her. She did sell both of the seats in question at her yard sale.

I'd suggest calling the car seat safety experts in your area and asking them what to do with your set. They can give you facts to go on.

OK, done preaching. :) Have a great day!

You can contact your local sheriff's dept. or other local law enforcement agency to find the nearest car seat inspection station or car seat specialist and they can tell you the latest regulations regarding whether this seat can safely be used again. As others have said, the car seat should also have an expiration date. We have one to get rid of as well. Good luck!

B.,

Please check the car seat to see if it has passed it's "expiration date". It should have a sticker affixed to the bottom or side that gives either a date of expiration or a date of manufacture.

Carseats are considered to be expired because some components - like the plastic and foam - can react to changes in temperature. With the freezing and cooling of the seasons, these components expand and contract, weakening the piece. This can also exacerbate any tiny cracks that might exist, that might not be visible, weakening the structure of the seat and increasing the likelihood that it might fail in a crash.

If the seat is expired, or about to expire, the best thing to do is to cut all the straps on the seat and dispose of it in the trash.

S.

Hi B.,
Have you tried www.freecycle.org to give the stuff away? It is a great website where people offer items like you have and people will respond when thay can pick it up. They can pick it up right from your front porch. It is a great site to help keep all of these items out of our landfills.
L.

Hi B.

There are a lot of people who cannot afford these items. On craigslist.com I always see people asking for baby items. Good luck. Bonnie

Check out freecycle.org. You join your local chapter, it's a yahoo group. The idea is to extend the useful life of items and keep them out of our landfills! There are always people on there looking for baby things. You can put an 'offer' up and if anyone is interested they will email you. You can than arrange pick-up. I usually just leave it on my porch or in front of my garage on the day that they can come. I'm sure you will get alot of responses!

As long as the car seat was never involved in an accident (which it apparently wasn't or you probably wouldn't still have it :) you can donate it. We have donated stuff like that to a women's shelter. I think that's a great way to recycle.

Anything like that can be listed on Freecycle - log in and register for Pittsburgh or wherever you're from. You're giving the item away, semi-anonymously, so people expect that it's not necessarily in pristine condition. And it keeps stuff out of the landfills!

Freecycle it! Freecycle has local chapters and you just post a message something like: Offer: infant carrier and give some details about it. Then, people e-mail you back that they want it. You can then choose who you want to give it to, and they arrange to pick it up or you can arrange to drop off or whatever. It's such a great thing because really needy people get what they need and a landfill doesn't fill up as fast. I use it all the time and just used it for our infant carrier (although I've also used it to give away air conditioners, computer printers, etc.) The website is freecycle.org. There you can find your local group. It's totally legit, and was just featured in Time magazine: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,###-###-...

Good luck!

Hi B.. 6 years is the limit for carseats. The reason is because they are exposed to such extreme heat and cold and the plastic weakens. I would cut the straps and then put it out to recycle. Hope this helps.

Since you have the stroller that the car seat is compatible with I would see if someone wanted it as just the stroller. You should throw away the base and make it clear that the seat should NOT be used as a car seat but it is still perfectly safe as a seat for in the house and for on the go in the stroller. It is just too old for the chance that it would be in an accident and fail - no one wants that on their conscience.

Good luck. In any case, give it away rather than sell as you wouldn't want someone to come back to you and say you sold them an unsafe product.