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Napier council offers subsidy to recycle child car seats standard

Napier residents can now recycle their expired or damaged child car seats at a discounted rate thanks to a partnership between the city council, Baby on the Move and SeatSmart. A Napier City Council subsidy means recycling through the SeatSmart programme will cost $10 per seat. The collection site is at Baby on the Move Hawke’s Bay store in Onekawa. Council Waste Minimisation and Sustainability Officer, Stefni Wilson says they hope the subsidy will help parents and caregivers recycle rather than send the seat to landfill. “We know there are many components in a car seat which can be recycled, and they just take up space in our landfills. SeatSmart also helps bring awareness to the fact that child car ...

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Trial leads to free child car seats recycled in New Plymouth district standard

Recycling a child car seat is now free in the New Plymouth district following a successful trial earlier this year. The New Plymouth District Council has put a subsidy in place to fully cover the cost of recycling child car seats through the SeatSmart programme. Baby on the Move Taranaki, in Inglewood, will continue to support the initiative as the collection site. SeatSmart Programme Manager Toni Bye says the council is now the third in the country to offer free child car seat recycling to its residents. “Over the years we’ve had a lot of requests from locals for the service to open in the region and we’re delighted to now be able to offer a longer-term solution.” New Plymouth ...

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Baby Bunting partners with SeatSmart on child car seat recycling standard

Specialist baby goods retailer Baby Bunting, which opened its first New Zealand store in August 2022, is offering a $10 subsidy for any child car seat returned to the store for recycling through the SeatSmart programme. This applies to any brand of child car seat, no matter where it was purchased. Additionally, any seats purchased from Baby Bunting, which have been subsequently damaged or expired, will have the full cost of recycling covered when returned to their Albany store in Auckland. This makes Baby Bunting the only retailer in New Zealand currently to fully cover the cost of recycling the child car seats it sells. The initiative is welcomed by 3R Group’s Toni Bye. Toni is the programme manager for ...

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Child car seat recycling programme hits 5,000 milestone standard

The SeatSmart child car seat recycling programme hit a record of 5,000 seats collected in a year, bringing the total to date to over 25,000 seats – some 128 tonnes of recyclable material. Programme Manager Toni Bye says she is pleased they were able to collect their highest one-year total despite the disruptions caused by covid. “We owe a big thanks to our collection sites around the country, including retailer Baby on the Move, the councils which support us and of course everyone who recycled a seat rather than sending to landfill.” SeatSmart was set up to tackle the issue of some 100,000 seats going to landfill each year, despite around 75% of a seat (by weight) being recyclable or ...

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Bravo for The Green Collective’s ENCORE bags standard

The Green Collective, in Nelson, is one of a new breed of businesses putting sustainability at the heart of its thinking, planning and doing. We chatted to founder Emma Saunders during the COVID-19 lockdown to find out more about her work and drive for a sustainable world. Tell us about The Green Collective and the bags you make using straps from the SeatSmart programme. All our products follow the simple concept of being as sustainable as possible from start to finish.  We reuse our offcuts, trimmed threads and more. For the ENCORE bags, I went a step further and looked at others’ manufacturing waste. I often drive past skips and pull over to investigate, build a relationship with the manager and see what new product could ...

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Child car seat recycling trifecta standard

The SeatSmart child seat programme, which set out to reduce the number of expired child car seats going to landfill, has produced a trifecta of benefits. It not only helps protect the environment and children on our roads, but also enables community work offenders to learn new skills. Expired or damaged seats that are dropped off at participating baby goods stores and council transfer stations are then dismantled by Department of Corrections community work offenders, so the components can be recycled. Acting Chief Probation Officer Graham Wainwright says the programme helps with the work and living skills component of the offenders’ sentence. “Individuals can access opportunities that help them develop skills and abilities that will hopefully set them up for ...

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SeatSmart is coming to Wellington image

We are absolutely delighted to say that Wellington City Council​ have awarded SeatSmart funding to help bring car seat recycling to Wellington in 2017! So, save your expired or damaged seats from landfill, we’ll have drop off points in various locations thanks to the Council and support from Baby On The Move – Wellington North​, Baby On The Move – Wellington South​ and the Sustainability Trust​. More information to come in the New Year! Since we wrote this post in December, we’ve been fortunate enough to gain support from both the Upper Hutt City Council and Hutt City Council to extend the programme to the Hutt Valley.  We’re looking forward to opening collection sites in Wellington and now the Hutt ...

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Over 1700 seats recycled in last 12 months! standard

Thanks to everyone who has recycled their child car seats through SeatSmart over the last 12 months. End of March 2016 marked the end of our successful trial period, covering April 2015 to March 2016.  In this period we have: collected 1,713 car seats that would have otherwise gone to landfill or continued in use despite being expired or damaged; extended collections to 11 sites in 6 cities; sent approximately 6,000kg of plastic, 850kg of metal and 170kg of straps for recycling or repurposing; and provided meaningful work for Department of Corrections work programmes. A review of the programme has set some exciting goals for the next 12 months, including a target of 3,500 seats recycled.  We have also amended the ...

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Local funding brings SeatSmart to Christchurch standard

The SeatSmart child car seat recycling programme is opening in Christchurch thanks to support from Canterbury’s Sustainable Initiatives Fund Trust (SIFT). The programme is already operating in Auckland, Hamilton, Hastings and Nelson and aims to collect and recycle some of the 40,000 plus child car seats going to landfill each year in New Zealand. According to Michelle Duncan of 3R Group, the SeatSmart programme manager, up to 94% of a car seat’s components can be recycled, bringing significant benefits and freeing up valuable landfill space. “Seats are dismantled by Department of Corrections as part of their community work programmes, and the recovered plastic is recycled into new products used in the building industry. “Metal parts are taken to metal recyclers, ...

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