Now, I recently wrote about how there are no recycling programs in the Pacific Northwest that will take used carseats. But what I hadn’t begun to think of was all the environmental impacts that carseats actually have on our planet and our lives.

I found this excellent report called The Healthy Carseat Guide from The Ecology Center, an environmental non-profit in Michigan. The guide looks at the dangerous components that can be found in carseats including stuff like: bromine (used as fire retardant), chlorine (in the form of PVC), lead (as an additive to PVC) and heavy metals- including arsenic, chromium, cobalt, copper, nickel, mercury and tin. YIKES. If that isn’t enough to send you screaming to the hills, I don’t know what is. Luckily for us, the people at The Ecology Center tested over 60 different carseats for these possible chemicals and then did a ranking.

Faring best were the following:
Infant
Graco- SnugRide Emerson
EvenFlo- Discovery Infant Churchill
Graco- Snugride Lindsey
Grac0-SnugRide Family Tree

Convertible
Cosco- Scenara 5 Point
Saftey 1st- Alpha Sport
Eddie Bauer- Deluxe Convertible Hampton
Eddie Bauer- 3 in 1 Convertible Montecito
Graco- ComfortSport Graphite
Graco- ComfortSport  Timber

Booster
EvenFlo- Big Kid No-Back Gold Dust
Eddie Bauer- Summit Booster Astoria
Britax- Parkway Express


It’s a pretty short list. After thinking it over and doing even more research, I came to the conclusion that the best bet for a green carseat is one that is “green” in terms of components and also has the longest lifetime. So picking a convertible carseat (one that goes from birth to 35-40 lbs) is really your best choice.

You still have to truck it to Portland to recycle it.

P.S. Someone mentioned to me that if your recycling is done by a private company (like Waste Management) you can call them to see if they will take the plastic part of carseats.