Recycle Your Old Car Seat At Target And Get A Nice Discount On A New One

Target’s annual Earth Day car seat trade-in event is back!

Since 2016, Target has celebrated Earth Day in the best way possible — that is, by bringing our attention to it in the first place and saving us a bunch of cash. For the last three years, they’ve allowed customers to trade in an old car seat in exchange for a 20 percent off coupon good on tons of sweet baby gear, and it’s that time of year again.

Because we needed another reason to direct deposit our whole paycheck into the big, red bullseye.

Here’s the details: just like in years past, the deal runs for a couple of weeks. This year, it’s April 22-May 4. Target understands us parents and the fact that it can sometimes take us literal days to accomplish a simple task such as trading in a car seat. Leaving the house is hard. Leaving the house with toddlers in tow is a feat of mental and physical strength.

Speaking of leaving the house, that coupon? It’s eligible for both in-store and online purchases. So you don’t even need to put on pants to cash it in and enjoy some nicely discounted stuff. The coupon is good for 20 percent off a new car seat, car seat base, travel system, stroller, or select baby home gear, such as play-yards, high chairs, swings, rockers and bouncers. So many choices.

It’s not just one type of seat, either. They’re taking literally any kind. According to their corporate blog, “Target will accept and recycle all types of car seats, including infant seats, convertible seats, car seat bases, harness or booster car seats, and car seats that are expired or damaged. Materials from the old car seats will be recycled by Target’s partner, Waste Management.”

So far, the program has been super successful. “To date, through trade-in programs, Target has recycled more than 7.4 million pounds of materials, and counting,” the company said. That’s a total of half a million car seats since they started the trade-in, which is astounding and very good news for our planet.

Kids’ events are held at nearly all of their locations, but you can confirm that your local Target is in on this deal by hitting up their site and typing in your zip code. Because no one wants to haul a giant, heavy, old car seat across a busy parking lot and into a busy store for no reason.

And while you’re there doing good for the earth and buying discounted baby stuff, literally nothing is stopping you from checking out a few other things you obviously need.

It’s actually not very easy to responsibly dispose of a car seat, as they don’t qualify for most curbside recycling programs, and of course, you never want to sell used seats, reuse a seat that’s been in an accident, or use a seat that’s past its expiry date, so every parent ever will need to ditch one at some point. Target gets your dollars no matter what so it’s great to see them helping us and the earth in the process.

Keeping all those used car seats out of landfills is a giant win for the planet and everyone who lives on it. Clearly, it’s an extra big win for those of us who can’t live without regular visits to our favorite store in the world.