Recycling – kiddie car seats..

They are marked as recyclable but recycling centers will not take them. In Canada, There is a center in Alberta, which is really useful for people living in Eastern Canada.

So why isn’t there a recycling center which will take them in Ontario? This is why..

Shown here is a baler machine. Unlike plastic bottles, kiddie car seats are an awkward shape and do not respond well to being compressed. This is where the problem starts. Your local recycling depot may bale stuff up, but car seats require a substantial shredder which is very expensive to buy and maintain and that has to be under cover.

The present answer is to smash them to pieces and place them in the regular garbage. It clearly isn’t a good solution, but is the only one.

There must be thousands of car seats dumped yearly, and even if there were facilities to dispose of them, how many owners would do it right and take them to a depot. Unfortunately, there are many people who don’t care enough t put themselves out, so the situation will continue ad infinitum.

I am going to call a local auto-breaker and ask what they do with plastics from recycled cars. It is just possible that they might accept the seat for putting though their shredders.. we shall see..