Unlike cribs or even strollers, car seats are pieces of baby gear that extend well beyond babyhood and often require multiple purchases. (True story: My own son is not even two and he’s on his third car seat already.) Maybe your baby outgrew the infant seat. Maybe the bulky convertible you bought for the last car dosen’t seem to fit in your new backseat. Or maybe your tattered car seat cover has seen the inside of your washing machine just about every other day. Whatever the case, Target has us covered: Target’s car seat trade-in program is coming back next week—allowing parents to get 20 percent off an upgraded version.


Parents can drop their old seats off at Target between September 10 and 23, but the 20 percent off coupon you get when you do doesn’t expire until October 7. That means you’ll have time to pick out your upgrade—unless you drove to the store with a child in the seat you’re recycling.

The first car seat recycling event at Target happened back in the spring and it was (not surprisingly) a BIG hit with parents. According to Target, almost 80,000 car seats were recycled after the spring event, which was the first of its kind among major retailers.

“After collecting more than a million pounds of car seat material to be recycled from the program in April, we’re excited to be bringing this amazing program back,” Target’s senior vice president of apparel and accessories, Michelle Wlazlo, explains in a media release. “We’re always looking for ways to make the lives of our guests easier and we’re proud to be able to help them reduce household clutter in a responsible and environmentally-friendly way.”

We’re proud of Target, too. The 20 percent off coupon can be used to buy car seats, booster seats, car seat bases and travel systems. So parents with kids at a lot of different stages will see the benefit in recycling those very non-biodegradable plastic seats. ?

If you’ve got an old car seat in the garage that you’ve been meaning to toss, now would be a good time to dust it off. Why not save some money while saving your seat from the landfill?