Children's car seat recycling offered from 11 Oct
5 October 2021
From 11 October, Council will offer a children's car seat recycling service. Contractor Smart Environmental will collect the car seats at the in-town Recycling Centre.
SeatSmart break down the car seats to recycle the materials, preventing re-usable resources from unnecessarily going to landfill.
Children's car seats can be recycled for $10 per seat, by dropping it off at the in-town Recycling Centre (25 Te Ngae Road), during normal opening hours.
Council is subsidizing $15 of the total $25 cost per seat, to recycle them through SeatSmart. The cost to recycle covers collection, transportation and dismantling. SeatSmart use employees from Social Enterprise – a paid service that provides employment for people who have a disability, or are disadvantaged or marginalised.
Waste Services and Sustainability Manager Prashant Praveen says the low cost to recycle the car seats means parents can feel good about minimising the impact of their waste on the environment.
“Disposing of your items in the most responsible way makes you feel good, knowing that you are contributing to a better environment for the future of your children.”
“When people purchase a new item, they should always think about where it is going to end up once they are finished with it. Ask yourself if the item can be re-purposed or recycled once you are done with it, and take this into account before you buy it.“
Sustainable Journeys Coordinator Rachel Doelman says “We've found that a lot of people don't realise that car seats expire or they don't really understand why an expired car seat can be unsafe. Seats expire due to a number of reasons including safety regulations changing, safe use labels fading over time and because exposure to sunlight weakens some plastics.”
Doelman encourages anyone with a car seat to check the expiry date, and use the recycling service if they need to dispose of it.
It is estimated that 100,000 car seats expire each year and they are likely to end up in landfills across New Zealand. Most car seats are made of more than 90% recyclable materials. Recovering recyclable materials means those resources can be made into new products, which contributes to a more circular industry.
Background
Earlier this year, Council supported the Rotorua Car Seat Clinic’s Car Seat Amnesty and Clinic Day, where caregivers could have their children’s car seats checked or correctly installed by their team of qualified Child Restraint Technicians, and drop off old car seats to be recycled.
The event was used to test the demand for a car seat recycling collection, and 23 car seats were dropped off to be recycled.
The Car Seat Amnesty and Clinic Day meant Council could collaborate with the Rotorua Car Seat Clinic on two very important issues for our community - safety in transport and waste minimisation. It was an opportunity for parents and guardians to learn more about how to use car seats to keep tamariki safe, and by recycling the seats they helped to minimise the amount of waste that unnecessarily goes to landfill.
To find out if your child’s carseat is expired or other safety information, visit Waka Kotahi’s website, and for more information about the car seat recycling service contact info@rotorualc.nz