Car-seat recycling

New at the Coon Rapids Recycling Center is child car seat recycling. $10 per car seat. Here's more info:

The Coon Rapids Recycling Center has paired with the Recycling Association of Minnesota (RAM), Carver County and the Adult Training & Habilitations Center’s (ATHC) Eco-Site to create a solution for safely and securely recycling all old or unwanted child safety seats. This program is the first of its kind in Minnesota. We often get calls from residents who do not want to throw their car seats away, so we decided to do something about it.

All of the materials (plastic, metal, textiles) are recycled. The plastic is recycled in Minneapolis and made into landscape tiles, the straps are reused for purses and other new textile artwork, and the metal is recycled into new metal. Car seats should never be left on the curb to be thrown away because someone could take it and reuse it. This is a bad thing because car seats have an expiration date -- the plastic over time (or in the case of an accident) gets to the point where it is no longer safe to withstand an accident or any trauma and may cause the seat to fail. Children can get injured or killed if people try to reuse car seats or keep them beyond their expiration.

And here are some photos of plastic caps to be recycled by Aveda. I included these just because I think they're cool!