PCH holds car seat recycling event

Reduce, re-use, recycle, that goes for car seats as well.

Phoenix Children's Hospital is holding its annual car seat demolition, and it turns out the effort is really two fold.

The hardware, seat covers, and seat belts were all removed, the old car seats were stripped down to the bare plastic.

"I take the approach of get it done, get it apart," said Nick Hansen.

Hansen is a certified car seat specialist and was among the dozens of volunteers participating in the PCH 7th Annual Car Seat Demolition event.

"We want to make sure we keep car seats out of the landfill. Car seats are the #5 plastic, so we can dismantle it and get the plastic out," said Angelica Baker with PCH.

Baker works as an injury prevention specialist for the hospital and says garage sales and trash cans are not the answer when it comes to car seats, and that people are starting to realize that.

"Last year we collected 700 seats, right now we're counting down and we have well over 200 seats," said Baker.

Car seats expire and that is the other reason PCH says they should be recycled.

"They typically expire typically in about six years after the date of purchase if they've been in a car accident, left in the sun, or dropped," said Hansen.

Valley residents dropped off car seats all morning. Volunteers worked until noon, making sure every piece and part that could be recycled was. Material was wasn't recyclable was thrown away.

The next car seat demolition event is scheduled for next year around Earth Day.