Many car seats mark the expiry date on the right hand side of the car seat or booster. Some car seats are safe to use until they are 10 years old; others 6 or 8 years. If you are unsure of your seat’s expiry date; call Transport Canada at 1-800-333-0371.
What do you do if your seat has past the expiry date? You should destroy the seat so that no one else may use it. Sounds horribly un-environmentally friendly? According to the experts, plastic breaks down with the heat of summer and the cold of winter. Though your seat may look perfectly good…the plastic may be compromised after extended use.
According to Safe Kids Canada…this is how to dispose of your out-of-date seat.
- Cut off the harness straps
- Remove all the padding
- Damage the seat so that no one else will be able to use it
You may be able to recycle the plastic shell of the car seat or booster seat – call your local recycling centre.
For more information click over to; Kids Safe Canada
Question (watch out rant to follow) – how is it even ethical for a manufacturer to sell a car seat that is meant to be for use from rear facing 5 pounds to forward facing up to 80 pounds but then have it expire 5 years into the eight year deal?…seems like a bit of a scam to me…if they really only last 5 years they should not be allowed to make car seats that are intended to span this many milestones…or at least you should be able to “trade it in” to get a discount on the same manufacturers booster seat at the 5 year mark…and then they should be responsible to getting rid of the expired seat!!! I am so annoyed by this whole thing!!! Also I bought some “forward facing 5 point harness switch to booster when you need them to” car seats on sale from the Bay discount shop online…only to discover when I picked them up they were expiring in 3 years – yes 3 not 5…guess they were already old…does the expiry still apply if they have not even been out of the box!!! The retailers should be forced to advertise the expiry on the seats when they have them for sale so you really know what you are getting, just like old milk in the super market you would at least be able to ask the sales people to get you one from the back and you might get a few years more use out of them…it should not be our burden to have to deal with a limited expiry because the retailer took too long to sell their stock…and when I bought them I needed them pronto so I could not be bothered returning them and looking for something else…I felt totally scammmed!!!!!
Personally, I agree. Manufacturers must lobby the government to have short expiry terms so that they can cut off the possibility of a large 2nd hand market.If plastic breaks down over the years, why am I still driving my car which is full of plastic that is supposed to keep me safe?! Should I change my car every 3 years because the dash board is made of plastic?…