Walmart's Car Seat Event Means You Can Get A $30 Gift Card By Recycling Your Old Seat

When my sister and I outgrew our car seats, our mom wasn't sure what to do with them. They lived in our garage for months, collecting dust as we flaunted our ability to sit in a car without a boost. I think we threw them away eventually, but unlike us, you can put yours to good use thanks to Walmart and TerraCycle's car seat recycling event. It will help the environment, as well as earn participating parents a gift card.

The event will run from Sept. 16 to Sept. 30 during National Baby Safety Month. The month is dedicated to educating parents on ways to keep infants safe, taking a different approach every year. Baby Safety Month 2019 will focus on how to properly use straps on juvenile products, according to the National Wellness Observance Calendar, so a car seat event is definitely an appropriate way to participate.

This will be Walmart's first car seat recycling event, as well as the nation's largest, according to a company press release. If you want to recycle a car seat, all you have to do is find the service desk at any participating Walmart store, where you can hand in the seat. The parts will be diverted from a landfill, and as an even greater incentive than cleaning out your storage areas, you'll receive a $30 Walmart gift card to be used in store or online for products for your baby for recycling a seat. Helping the environment and getting some cash? Yes please.

Walmart is a safety seat destination for many because they sell hundreds of models, so it's a natural step for it to establish itself as a place to get rid of old seats too. As Melody Richards, Vice President, Walmart Baby, said in the same press release, "Safety – especially car seat safety – is a top priority for Walmart’s Baby department, so we wanted to use our size and scale to create an event that offered unprecedented access to trade in an outgrown car seat for a gift card – perfect for using on your baby’s next car seat." Meanwhile, their partner in the event, TerraCycle, is an organization that works with manufacturers to recycle "difficult-to-recycle" materials, like car seats, that would normally be thrown away, as the press release explained. So TerraCycle brings the eco-friendly strategy, while Walmart provides parents a place to put those no-longer-useful car seats. It's a match made in recycling heaven.

It sounds like a pretty sweet deal, but there are a few caveats. Walmart is limiting the trade-in to two gift cards per family. So even if you bring five car seats with you to the store, the most Walmart cash you'll be able to get is $60. The store also won't be accepting booster seats during the promotion, so you'll have to find another way to get those out of the garage. And not all Walmart stores will be involved in the event, but you can find out if your store is participating online. But the event allows you to help the environment and clear out the garage in one fell swoop, so it's worth a trip to the store. Here's to autumn cleaning.