It’s back! This Sunday, May 5, the UsedVancouver.com crew will be collecting expired car seats and boosters at Bellies to Babies Celebration from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. We hope to triple the collections from last September when we collected and recycled 44 car seats.

As many parents in the Lower Mainland will tell you, it’s very difficult to find a recycling depot that takes back expired seats without an organized initiative in place. It’s also unique for parents to be able to simply drop-off expired car seats without having to disassemble them first. This weekend disassembly is not necessary because Gibsons Recycling Depot is looking after this potentially toxic task and they will be taking apart the seats and then recycling the plastic and metal components. Gibsons Depot experts agree that when disassembling car seats, masks should be worn in a well ventilated area to avoid inhaling flame retardant chemicals found in the interior foam of all car seats. We thank them for looking after this for Lower Mainland parents!

Many of the newer car seats have longer expiration dates, but typically they still expire within six years. If your car seat has not expired but you have finished using it, before you think of passing it to a friend or selling it at a yard sale or online please call the manufacturer and check that the model number adheres to the new regulations set forth by Health Canada announced in January 2012. This removes liability from you if the car seat is involved in an accident.

Local initiatives like this are what set Used.ca apart – with its strong community involvement and commitment to the core mission of keeping our landfill clear of items that can be reused or disposed of with a recycling focus. Also partnering with an amazing trade show like Bellies to Babies Celebration and Gibsons Recycling Depot makes all the difference with offering the education piece of why it’s important to be aware off the personal waste we bring into our lives and pushing to find solutions on how to dispose of them responsibly.

Gibsons Recycling Depot is a great place to visit because their message of holding people accountable for waste is important. Most things brought to the depot can be recycled, anything else that isn’t broken goes into a walk-in locker to be sold. For the campaign on May 5th they determined there are enough similarities between booster seat materials and car seats to now include booster seats in the recycling program this year (last September they were only able to accept car seats). Hooray for progress!

After receiving feedback from green-minded parents still holding onto broken high chairs and strollers, knowing they will go to the landfill when disposed, we are also working with Gibsons to find a common thread to these items so in future campaigns they can be recycled too. Wouldn’t it be great to have these campaigns include a broader scope of baby items that after being reused multiple times, can be disassembled and disposed of by recycling the components instead of sitting in a landfill forever?

We are inviting a small group of parents to bring broken baby items comprised of metal and plastic (highchairs, strollers, saucers, etc.) to the trade show on May 5th and we’ll include these in our delivery to Gibsons Recycling Depot so they can analyze the components to see if any of these products can be included in our next campaign. **Important** if you are planning on bringing any other baby items besides car seats for disposal on May 5th, please comment on this article and let us know the number and type of items so we can be prepared. And remember, if you have baby items that are not broken and safe to be handed down to another family, please create a listing on UsedVancouver.com – let’s also reduce our consumption.

To checkout Bellies to Babies Celebration vendors that will be at the show this Sunday, access the full list here.

To read more about the great work Gibsons Recycling Depot does for the Province of B.C., click here.

To read more about how to tell if your car seat has expired, click here.

All Lower Mainland parents are encouraged to share the image included in this article so their friends and family are aware of this excellent service being offered. Free up some room in your garage, Spring Clean, and feel proud to be taking responsibility for managing your personal waste!

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