• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, April 30, 2018

Both Walmart and Target are reaching out to parents feeling guilty about their seemingly endless contribution to landfills.

They are focusing on the headaches around car seat disposal. Although car seats make kids radically safer, they’re problematic. While most used baby gear can be donated or sold, changing regulations means car seats need to be replaced often, and many come with expiration dates. And for safety’s sake, they shouldn’t be sold or reused. But many curbside recycling programs won’t accept them.

Walmart, in a made-in-America push, has teamed up with Dorel Juvenile, a Foxborough, Mass.-based manufacturing company that makes strollers out of recycled materials, including old car seats. Called 1^st RIVA Travel System, the eco-friendly stroller/car seat combos are exclusive to Walmart, and priced at around $199. 

Dorel, which owns such brands as Safety 1^st, which made its mark decades ago with the original “Baby on Board” stickers, says it has spent years striving to find a concept that was both affordable and reduces landfill waste. At 18 pounds, the new stroller is also lightweight and assembled from American and imported parts in the company’s Columbus, Ind., plant.

Walmart says the new partnership is part of its $250 billion Made in America initiative, which it claims has boosted manufacturing job growth by 250,000.

Target, meanwhile, is bringing back its car-seat trade-in program, as part of its Earth Month celebration. In return for any car seat, parents get 20% off a new car or booster seat; car seat base, travel system or stroller, either in stores or online.

Once parents hand the unwanted seats in, the Minneapolis-based retailer turns them over to Waste Management, which recycles them into such items as grocery carts, plastic buckets and construction materials.

It says it’s collected 176,000 car seats since launching the program in 2016, diverting 2.6 million pounds of materials from landfills.