Update: This deal is now live.
Target is hosting their
Target Car Seat Trade-In Event and offering a
20% Off Coupon (
valid for a new car seat, stroller or select baby gear) when you trade in your old car seat w/
Target Circle at any
participating Target locations or when you follow the instructions listed below.
Thanks to community member
dshop for finding this deal
Note, offer will require a Target Circle account to redeem your unique 20% off coupon
- Make sure you're a registered member of a Target Circle account [Free to Join]
- Bring any old car seat or base to a nearby/participating Target location and drop it in the designated box inside the store
- Open your Target app [iOS or Android] to scan the code on the box
- Note, talk to a team member in guest services if you need assistance
- Open your wallet via the Target app to find your unique 20% off coupon for a new car seat, stroller or select baby gear
- Click on the red "+" to save the offer to your account and place your order via online, or scan your barcode at the register for discount
Use your trade-in coupon on a new car seat, stroller or select baby gear
:
Top Comments
CR goes on to justify [washingtonpost.com] the 6-7 yr "expiration" as indicating safety standards and technology evolves. That might be a reason to replace a seat, but not that existing seats are inherently bad.
The closest I can find to an answer is a guy that lives in a country where there is a thriving second-hand carseat market (apparently):
Is there any data that says secondhand car seats aren't safe? [marketplace.org]
Sweden has some of the best and strictest child safety seat laws in the world. And they've paid off: child auto fatalities have been reduced to almost zero.
I figured that if anybody could give me an honest, data-driven answer to the question of whether used and expired child safety seats are dangerous, it would be a Swedish regulator. So I contacted Maria Krafft, the director of traffic safety and sustainability at the Swedish Transport Administration, who years ago had blogged in favor of used car seats and where to buy good ones in Stockholm. Krafft referred me to Professor Anders Kullgren of the Karolinska Institutet and the Chalmers University of Technology, as well as the longtime head of traffic safety research at Folksam, one of Sweden's largest insurers. During the early 1990s, Folksam even manufactured its own line of child safety seats. If used car seats are a hazard, Professor Kullgren would know. He shared his thoughts via email:
We have the same experience in Sweden. Manufacturers of child restraints (and other safety equipment such as bicycle and motorcycle helmets) tell their customers to buy a new product after a certain period of time, often relatively short. We can't see any evidence to justify that from what we have seen in real-world crashes.
The email continued, touching on Folksam's past as a seat manufacturer:
We still have some seats stored at Folksam that have been used. We have not seen any changes or problems with the plastic material in those seats for this 20–30 year period of time.
That's not data, but it's more than what the world's biggest car seat manufacturers and Target are willing or able to reveal.
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And regarding the comparisons of leaving lawn furniture outside for years? Unless you're rocking a convertible, carseats don't see nearly the same amount of abuse; heat and cold cycles, yes, but not UV exposure which I'd say is the #1 reason for plastic degradation; carbon black and other compounds are added to inhibit UV damage. Also, most lawn furniture is RPVC (same as your window casings, molding, vinyl trim is made out of) and particularly susceptible to degradation. As I mentioned previously, carseats (the actual plastic seat, not the belts or covering) are generally HDPE, the same resin as milk jugs and the same resin (type, perhaps not specific grade) as Little Tykes lawn toys. They might fade, but I can't say I've had one crumble on me and I have stuff that's 20 years old, sitting out in direct baking sunlight all day, or frigid temps in the winter.
I'm not arguing against replacing seats, but I hate it when someone pisses on my leg and tells me it's raining. Let me evaluate the data and make my own choice - don't come up with bullshit excuses.
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145 Comments
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I dropped my old ones off anyway since Target says they'll be responsibly recycled.
They did that ONE time. Then quickly realized what a cluster fark it was for them and ended it early. It has not reappeared and I don't think it will.
I can't seem to find a source that actually follows the waste stream though.
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Or unless you need to buy a 5 point or booster as the kid grows. Kids will generally be in 3 different seats from birth to ~ 8 or 9.
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