The Australian Automotive Dealer Association has thrown its support behind the initiative to recycle potentially unsafe child seats.
As part of National Recycling Week, federal environment minister Sussan Ley – whose Farrer electorate in NSW benefits from an automotive dealership economic contribution of over $197 million – is supporting the landmark agreement to send old, worn and out-of-date child seats to be recycled and removed from circulation under the Product Stewardship Act.
“New car dealers are in the business of getting consumers into newer, safer cars and the AADA supports anything that leads to better road safety outcomes” chief executive James Voortman says.
The agreement signed this week by Australia’s major motoring groups, and manufacturers and retailers of child seats, sees a government recognition of the deterioration of child seat component parts over time, especially after being involved in a car crash.
Over1.4 million child seats are bought in Australia every year, and while 200,000 are disposed off annually, over 90% of the materials in typical child restraints can be recycled when correctly dismantled and reprocessed.
The Morrison Government is investing $20 million for Product Stewardship to encourage industry to take greater responsibility for waste, including a Memorandum of Understanding signed this week to make car seat manufacturers, retailers and motoring associations coming together for the first time to adopt a “Seat Care” program that makes it easy for parents and families to dispose of old and potentially dangerous child safety seats for recycling.
APV-T in Victoria is a Tier 1 engineering service facility which crash tests vehicles for ANCAP and says child seats can be subjected to around 28Gs of force during a 50km/h test.
“The Australian standards are pretty stringent and anything that meets the standard is pretty good,” technical engineer Ted Kieca tells AutoTalk.
“The law says child seats must be replaced after a crash because of hairline fractures, or separation of materials can occur; it’s the same with seat belts which must be replaced for the same reason, freying, stretching,” he explains.
When it comes to recycling child restraint products, manufacturer Britax says its Safe-n-Sound car seats are made with Polypropylene (PP) which is number ‘5’ for recycling purposes” and suggests consumers “check with your local council as this can be placed in some household recycling bins”.
Post car crash Britax advises “You should destroy the restraint even if no damage is obvious…Your insurance company may require you to keep the child restraint for assessment, but do not use the child restraint after a severe crash”.
Using second-hand child seats, Britax asks consumers to ensure they comply with Australian Standard 1754, and warns against using restraints without a top tether hook system.
“As a general rule, only consider a restraint owned by someone you know; secondhand child restraints may not contain all the safety features of the latest Australian Standard – we do not recommend the use of second hand Child Restraints as the full history of the restraint may not be known,” Britax explains on its website.
The Product Stewardship Act is reviewed every five years and minister Ley has included child seat recycling under the act’s “Priority List” to establish a working ecosystem for recycling old, damaged or worn child seats.
A 2017 trial throughout Queensland, NSW and Victoria successfully collected 1,921 seats for recovery and recycling and diverted 10,342 kilograms of materials including plastic and steel from landfill.
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